He Is Your Life!

Colossians 3:1-5 (MSG)

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God.

Paul is encouraging us to make our lives all about Christ! Jesus placed us in position to succeed, not to fail. He guaranteed us that if we make Him our top priority that we will appear with Him in glory. Our new identity then is that we are alive in Christ! He is our Savior. He is our Lord and Master. He is the one we serve, not our friends or family. We are to please Him. He is the one whose opinion of us matters most!

If we are in Christ, and have become Christians, a change has taken place. We must say goodbye to that Old Man and all the ungodly habits, passions, and practices of the past. And because Jesus has restored our life, because He has given us abundant life, we are new creations, made in His image.

God is re-creating us, but He does not force this change upon us — we must put on the new man, we must clothe ourselves in something new. We are to make choices in the light of who we are: what we say, what we do, what we particpate in and who we spend quality time with. We are to become more and more like Christ, because that is who we are.

Don't fret, you can do this! Follow the example of Jesus. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and comfort you. Take this journey with fellow believers whose values and convictions are focused on Christ because He is your life!