Title: Our Attitudes and Actions/ Topic: Holy Living

Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 20; 1 Kings 21; 2 Chronicles 17; Colossians 3

Scripture: Colossians 3:1-17
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Observation: The entire chapter in Colossians spoke to me. It is all about the attitudes and actions that we should be living by in order to please God and live a righteous life that will be blessed by God. Attitudes we must have are: 1. Realize that we died with Christ and our life is now in Him. He gets to call the shots and we don't. We subject our will to his voluntarily. Because of this, our hearts are to be focused on things above and not on this life. 2. We are to have an attitude of love, kindness, compassion and forgiveness toward others. 3. We are to cultivate a grateful heart. 4. We are to let peace rule in our hearts. If peace isn't reigning in our hearts, it's a sign that something is wrong in our relationship with the Lord. Actions that we must take are: 1.We have an obligation to God to put to death anything that belongs to our sin nature. 2. We must not use filthy language. 3.We must take time to dwell in the word of God and teach each other God's wisdom. 4. We must work diligently at everything we do as a testimony to Christ. Laziness does not become us. 5. In addition to an attitude of gratitude, we must also express gratitude often.

Application: The application is simple; just do all this! Simple does not mean easy. The hardest part about doing all this is that we must submit ourselves to God. Submission is not easy. We have to spend time with God, in prayer, worship and the Word to be able to do it. Only when we have experienced his great love for us and know that he truly has our best interest at heart and will bless us when we follow his plans for us.

Prayer: Help me Father, to be submitted to you fully in all things in my life. Thank you for sacrificing yourself totally for my good. Sometimes I don't see the blessing right away; I only experience the pain of having to put my flesh to death.
But I know that pain is temporary and that the blessing you bring to my life as a result of me battling my flesh is more than worth it. Nothing compares to knowing you and having you in my life.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.