Daily Devotional
Word of the Day
Redirecting Your Gaze
Pastor Scott
Thursday, June 03, 2004
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"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."
(Colossians 3:1)
"Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry... But now ye have put off all of these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth" (Col. 3:5, 8). Paul spoke of our need to put on Christ and to forbear and forgive one another, even as Christ forgave us. He identifies all of these sins that we need to deal with. What's different about us? Our besetting sins are all different. What's common to us? We all need to die that Christ would be glorified. We need to seek the things that are above.
Personal death begins with redirecting your gaze. Stop looking at the things of the earth and start looking into the heavenlies. Just change the direction of your eyes. Change the direction of your heart. Set your affections on the things that are above! To set your affections means that it's an act of choice.
"Oh, if God would just do this. If God could just change my heart."
God has changed your heart; you need to change your affections. I can choose to be mad at you or I can choose to like you. It's not what you do that causes our relationship to either be good or bad; it's what I do. You can sin against me and that can potentially break our relationship, but I'm not going to let you get away with it. I'm going to forgive you, so we still have a relationship.
"Set your affections..." One thing keeps us from walking in the spirit: we choose not to. We choose our flesh. We choose sin. We choose the devil. But we need to choose the cross. It's just as easy to say, "Yes, I'm going to die. I choose not to prefer myself. I choose to get up out of bed. I choose to love my wife. I choose to obey my parents. I choose to read my Bible. I choose to pray." But everything in my members says, "No! I'm first! Look at me! Take care of me! How come I'm not getting what everybody else is getting? Life isn't fair!" Mortify your members which are upon the earth. This cross is a choice. Tragically most of us want to live our lives by making individual, momentary choices. Why don't you make a choice once for all? I choose the lordship of Jesus in my life.
You say, "Well, I've done that."
Really? Where's the evidence?
"Are you saying that I'm not saved?"
No, you could be regenerated, but where's the life that bears the image of Jesus? For me to live is Christ, and the life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2:20).
Paul had a faith--and it was in himself. He was a big shot. Everybody looked at him as the most spiritual guy around. He persecuted the Church and had Christians killed. He had faith--in Paul. He had faith in God Who gave him a set of rules to follow, and he followed them! But he needed faith in God to die and let Christ live through him. He emptied Paul out. Paul said, "Everything I used to count as gain--strength, will, intelligence, talent, knowledge--I now count loss that I might win Christ" (Phil. 3:8). Are you still trusting in your own abilities?