Our New Nature, Once Given, Always Renewed

And have put on the new nature, which is being renewed after the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:10)

Read: Col. 3:1-10; II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:24

What Is God Saying?

The focus in Colossians is all on Jesus. Heresies to suit every taste were breaking out in Colosse like a virus, and the attack weakened the believers' bodies. Believers, new in the faith, were being taught that angels should be worshiped, that Jewish rituals should be added to the simple Gospel and that Jesus the man died but that Christ the Divine did not. They needed a word then to the effect that Christ is all and in all. He is the Head of the Church and the reason we labor for the Church (1:24). He gives us freedom from human regulations (2:8). He is the reason for and the power behind all holy living (Col. 3). He is the reason for praying, for preaching, and for godly conduct (4:2-5).

After pinpointing the kinds of living (not living, existing!) that characterize the conduct of those outside of Christ, those which incur the wrath of God, Paul reminds us of two things in the tenth verse. First, the new nature is given to us in the miracle of the New Birth. Second, this new nature is not static, like a museum piece in a glass case. It is being renewed (growing) in knowledge after the image (pattern) of its Creator. Since Christ is all and in all (3:11), everyone is included: Greek, Jew, slave, free person, circumcised, and uncircumcised. All who have the new nature are being renewed.

How Does This Apply To Us?

In coming to prayer, we must remember that God who created is the God who re-creates. God's gift of salvation is an act and a process. This fact is one thing that makes prayer so important. Prayer is based on listening to God. Prayer continues as we respond to what God has said. Prayer is having our lives renewed day by day through God's Word and in His image Christ, Giver, Pattern, and Architect of the new life.

Pray With Me

God, Almighty, and all-loving, You created and You are creating. I thank You for the awareness through Your Word and amid life that the new nature that I once put on is still being renewed. ‘Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and put a new and right spirit within me.’ Time and again it comes home to me, each time with the joy of discovery—the God who creates is the God who renews. The gift of God is an act and a process, a goal attained and the ground still being gained.

Knowing this, the Lord keeps me from discouragement and pride. When the Accuser points to persistent faults and taunts me with unkept promises, this assurance keeps me from discouragement. When I rest on my achievements and victories won instead of anticipating the fuller life You have promised, this assurance keeps me from pride. It is wonderful to know that my walk with Christ began in the past but continues in the present. It is dynamic, not static. It grows while being grounded.

The Son, who is my Lord and my Savior, reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature. Help me, at least in some measure, to become a reflection of His perfection. Help me to exemplify His patient love. Then the new nature which was given shall develop until that glorious day when having finished the race, I shall enter rest. Until then I will rest in Your will. I will serve in Your strength. I will conquer in Your name. All the while I will keep on trusting that God who has begun a good work will surely bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.

In whose name I pray. Amen.

Moving On In The Life of Prayer

If our lives seem to be at a standstill, or as it was called in the old days of sailing vessels, becalmed, we can experience spiritual renewal. The sails of our vessels can be filled with the winds of the Spirit. The first word for Spirit was roach or wind. Prayer is the act of lifting our sails (our souls) by faith toward the sky even when there is not a whisper of a breeze stirring soon, we are moving for Him. The new life grounded in Christ is the new life growing in Christ. Faith is the key to salvation. Prayer is the key to growth.