Colossians 3:5-10 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Your will... - AA Third Step Prayer.
Actually, that's what I'm doing this week - breaking down the 3rd Step Prayer. In a nutshell, it's giving our lives over to God.
Again, here we are asking the Lord to take away the junk inside of us to make more room for Him to fill.
The prayer asks the Lord to relieve us of the bondage to self. There are probably many more ways we can be in bondage to ourselves. How about self-protection, self-hatred, selfishness - for starters? God can't release us of them until we're ready to let them go.
Once we're ready to let them go, then the Lord is over-ready to take them away and help us to put on a new 'robe of righteousness'. We don't need all that clutter in our lives - it just makes us weighed down and weary.
Then Jesus comes in and fills us with good things, like love and purity, cleanness and wholeness, faithfulness and calmness.
The thing is, we need to stop picking up the same thing over and over again. We shed the robe of righteousness and exchange it back for the chains of bondage to our own desires and wants. If we want to better do His will in our lives, to know His will for our lives, then we need to be very close to Jesus. Once we start to heed the voice of self, then we are on a slippery slope down the slide of sin, which leads to despair.... and our separation from hearing the voice of the Lord.
Let's all continue to shed the old rags and to keep on the Royal Robe of Righteousness that Jesus has given us.
The prayer asks the Lord to relieve us of the bondage to self. There are probably many more ways we can be in bondage to ourselves. How about self-protection, self-hatred, selfishness - for starters? God can't release us of them until we're ready to let them go.
Once we're ready to let them go, then the Lord is over-ready to take them away and help us to put on a new 'robe of righteousness'. We don't need all that clutter in our lives - it just makes us weighed down and weary.
Then Jesus comes in and fills us with good things, like love and purity, cleanness and wholeness, faithfulness and calmness.
The thing is, we need to stop picking up the same thing over and over again. We shed the robe of righteousness and exchange it back for the chains of bondage to our own desires and wants. If we want to better do His will in our lives, to know His will for our lives, then we need to be very close to Jesus. Once we start to heed the voice of self, then we are on a slippery slope down the slide of sin, which leads to despair.... and our separation from hearing the voice of the Lord.
Let's all continue to shed the old rags and to keep on the Royal Robe of Righteousness that Jesus has given us.
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