Discipleship
LessonPutting on the New Man: New Year’s
As we look forward to the New Year and all of the promises and challenges that it will bring, I thought it would be useful to consider a Biblically-based set of resolutions. During my quiet time these past weeks, I have been considering my own walk with Christ and how woefully short that I have fallen as I reflect on the past year.
Like many of you I find myself, like Paul, desiring to do the right things but doing the wrong things instead. As I have considered what kind of person that God wants me to be, he has drawn me to the book of Colossians. So for this week, let’s take a look at Chapter 3 and see what He tells us that may be helpful to us in 2009.
Read Colossians Chapter 3; then consider the following
- As you read through Chapter 3, make note of the verses that use the word "you" or "your". Do you think, based on what you see, that this may be speaking directly to you?
- What is it that we are commanded to do in verses 1 and 2?
- Read Matthew 6:19-21. What is Jesus teaching us about the things above, versus the things on the earth?
- What happened to you, according to Colossians 3:3?
- What does verse 4 say will happen to you? He tells us about those who succeed; read Isaiah 40:31. This is God talking directly to us, telling us what to do if we want to finish the race, if we want to succeed in the kingdom, if we want to do His will. Read this well known verse and write down what God tells us to do; then pray for the wisdom and strength to be able to carry it out.
- Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Who will rise first with Christ?
- Colossians 3:5 commands us to do what?
- What else are we commanded to do, in Colossians 3:6-9?
- In verses 12-16, we are given instructions as to what we should do instead. What are some of the specific things mentioned?
- As we live our lives each day, what do verses 17 and 23 tell us about how we are to live our lives?
As Paul writes these instructions to us, and I consider all that he has written just in this chapter alone, I believe that we are challenged to live a life dramatically different than the one that we are living today. In any case, I know that this is how it speaks to me. My prayer is that I can have the strength, determination, discipline and faith to actually carry out his instruction, even though, sadly, I seem to always fall short.
My prayer also that these words will speak to you as they speak to me, and that they will encourage each of us to live a more abundant and free life in the new year; boldly walking as Christ would have us, living a life that earnestly seeks out the lost and dying around us, and glorifying God in all that we say and do.
As many of you may already be aware, my favorite passage in Bible for instruction regarding how to live as a Christ-follower is Romans Chapter 12. I highly recommend it to you as a blueprint for how we should live in the days and months ahead.
So let’s examine our lives in light of the New Year that Christ is going to give us, and let’s commit to living it just for Him.
Thanks for studying with us; and have a great week everyone.
In Christ,
Wes
[2009]