Head-Heart-Hands — The Emotional Side of Christianity - Tuesday
Today’s Verse
Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (NIV)
A few months ago, my husband and I decided to embark on a challenge, maybe one of the toughest challenges we had yet to face. Neither of us had ever tried to do something this difficult before. We knew we would need to be strong and rely on each other… We were going to give up sugar. I know! Terrible! This was going to be the worst 30 days of our lives!
Ok, so maybe I am being a little facetious. There are challenges out there that are much more difficult than giving up added sugar for 30 days. But don’t hate too much until you have tried it. We said that for 30 days, we would not eat anything with added sugar listed on the label. That knocks out all candy. All baked goods. Most store-bought smoothies. A lot of brands of bread, weirdly enough. And so many other things I would never have guessed. By removing these temptations from my grocery cart and our home, we were going strong and set up for success. Were we a little cranky? Sometimes. Did we get the hankering for a Cookout milkshake every night before bed? Maybe.
After the initial shock to our systems that first week, we slowly found our routine and rediscovered the sweetness of fruit that had somehow been lost to our taste buds. Little did we know, we had yet to meet the ultimate temptation—the one thing that could sway us from our progress: the Dairy Queen Reese's Blizzard Ice Cream Cake. It was over before we even knew what happened.
I know, I know, you were rooting for us, and we let you down! The consequences of our failure? We completely abandoned the remaining 7 days of our challenge. We had already failed. Why not at least enjoy the rest of our ice cream cake?
Friends, while I tell you this story to hopefully entertain and perhaps gain a few accountability partners (for we are once again trying our hand at this same challenge for Lent), let this also serve as a warning of how easy it is to slip back into our old selves. We are called to put to death our earthly nature. Put to death those cravings for impure media. Put to death that habit of lying. Put to death the idol that infiltrates our families from right under our noses. When we cast off our old selves, we are expected to keep it off.
REFLECTION
It is easy to rationalize reasons to keep clinging to our old ways. Take some intentional time today to take inventory of your heart. What of your old nature might be creeping its way back in? Pray that the Lord would continually make a clean heart in you each morning, and then put in the work to force those old habits out of your life. When I eliminated sugar, fruit began to taste like candy. In the same way, when we eliminate that which belongs to our earthly nature, we begin to see the sweetness of how Christ has called us to live.