July 17, 2020 LAY ASIDE
Ephesians 4:22, 25 “You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.” “Lay aside falsehood, then, let each man tell his neighbor the truth, for we are members one of another.”
Colossians 3:8 “But now you also lay aside all these things: anger, rage, wickedness, slander, abusive language from your mouth.”
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
These verses offer us a great insight that we may find almost too good to be true, or it may sound naïve. Our response may be “You just don’t understand how difficult it is to just ‘lay aside’ what I’m dealing with. In the natural, it is difficult or impossible to simply lay aside those things that ensnare us-things we know we should lay aside. However, if we know Jesus as Lord and Savior and know our true identity as His sons and daughters, we are not limited to the natural and to self effort. Knowing Jesus does not just make us better, it transforms us into new creations. Transformation is just that-becoming something we were not previously. We hear a lot about the Holy Spirit, but perhaps we have lost the impact of what it means that the Holy Spirit of God lives in us! However, we can grieve the Holy Spirit; “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30. The Holy Spirit does not force Himself or His ways upon us, but He does draw us to the Father. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, we could never live the Christian life. The Holy Spirit has many functions, including, revealing Christ to us, revealing the truth of the scriptures to us, teaching us, guiding our steps, enabling us to live as God calls us to live, convicting us of sin, comforting us, encouraging us..and so much more. When we resist Him and choose not to cooperate with Him, we grieve Him; it grieves Him because He knows that the Father loves us and has our best interest in mind and to see us, God’s chosen-ones, not walking according to His Spirit is grievous. When we welcome and embrace the work of the Holy Spirit in us and when we are quick to obey the Spirit, we then will be able to discern His work in us and will be able to hear in our spirit what He is saying to us. Laying aside the things that so easily beset us is a definite and specific action, and is also an on-going process. Let us accept as true the fact that you and I can lay aside those things that we know we should lay aside-wrong responses, wrong habits, wrong thoughts and attitudes, wrong beliefs, indifference, self-centeredness, or whatever it or they may be. It is a matter of consciencly putting off, or laying aside the things that do not please the Father and putting on the new person we have been created to be.
1 John 3:6 “No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him.”
Romans 6:11,14a “So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.” “For sin shall not have dominion over you:”
Blessings,
Buddy
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