Daily Reading
Daily Thought
She came every week with her mom to the Wednesday night prayer meeting. She was twelve, the youngest in the room, but she liked to pray and she liked the prayers of the people who came. Except one man. He prayed long every week, and every week finished with the same words, “and now, Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of our lives. Amen.”
At long last, she could take no more. The man, as always, prayed what he always prayed, finishing, as expected, with “and now, Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of our lives.” But before he could say “Amen,” she jumped to her feet and shouted, “Don’t do it, Lord! Kill the spider!”
That’s what Paul is shouting in his letter to the Colossian church, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5). In our war against sin, it is kill or be killed. We don’t need a cleaning, we need a killing, because sin is a fight to the death. It is not the cobwebs, but the spider; not our actions, but our “passion, evil desire, and covetousness” (Colossians 3:5). The heart of the matter is found in our hearts.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ~Colossians 3:15-16
Daily Prayer
Heavenly Father, You are holy and good. You didn’t save me merely to make me a better person, but a new creation, to die to myself and become a new life in You.
I don’t want to think and act the way I used to, but rather, to live the life You created me to live. May I put to death the desires, the thoughts, the habits of old, and put on the new life you have given me, a life of love and compassion, of goodness and peace, of thanksgiving for a better life, the best life, a life that gives You glory and pleasure.
Amen
Daily Question
What need to be put to death in your life?