Take a moment to read Colossians 3:5-11 before reading the devotional below.
When you are no longer living by rules, how do you do the right thing? Most people imagine throwing out rules and doing whatever they feel like doing. Sometimes we call that freedom. But following Jesus is about getting free from yourself. You don’t need rules because you aren’t driven by the sinful impulses that made you need rules in the first place.
There’s a clear line between who you are when you are living in sin and who you are when you are living in Christ. Today’s passage lists a host of sins, which Paul says are “lurking” within all of us. These desires must be killed in order to freely step into the new normal God has for us. And that new normal is available to anyone who wants to enter it.
Here’s your freedom for today: Jesus is all about making a new you. He’s got so much freedom just waiting for you. Imagine wearing a whole bunch of filthy rags for clothes because you don’t know any other life and then being handed a new suit. You might not even know how to put it on right away, and you have to get naked first by taking off your tattered rags. But the new look and the new you is worth it.