Colossians 1:9-20 says, “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. 14 We have redemption,the forgiveness of sins, in Him.
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
16 For everything was created by Him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things,
and by Him all things hold together.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that He might come to have
first place in everything.
19 For God was pleased to have
all His fullness dwell in Him,
20 and through Him to reconcile
everything to Himself
by making peace
through the blood of His cross—
whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (HCSB)
I can’t help but read this with enriching passion for Paul’s eloquent culmination of describing God’s divine and righteously driven knowledge of our need for this “spiritual understanding” (v.9) and how joyful he is and inclined to continue to pray that we grasp this holy gift of discernment for how, when, where, and why God moves so heavily in the lives of His devoted servants, His purchased and adopted family and how great the work of His cross was and will always be. This should rightfully encourage and embolden us to live as those who “understand” His power and utilize His Spirit. Now I’m the type of person that believes that “New Years resolutions” are a pointless way of justifying putting off change in our lives til the first of January, but only 8 days into this new year the Lord has shown absolute resolution and resolve in my heart of hearts as to what it really means to change and when we should make it evident that something has changed. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 echos the Colossians passage in a way that cannot be mistaken:
“16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have knownChrist in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. 18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God.’ 21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (HCSB)
Like a quiet and impenetrable fog that covers a river bank just after a heavy cool rain, our sin and lost life, revolving around that which is unsatisfied and unsatisfiable, lingers with dread and dark silence. But we have a holy wind to blow the mist away and we can see the shore much more clearly after the fog passes than we ever did before the rain, and it’s a firm and beautiful soil to root ourselves in and know that nothing will threaten our prosperity if we cling to this hope (Jeremiah 17:8). The blurry knowledge of ourselves before Christ and before our blessed understanding through Him isn’t so much a knowledge as it is a reoccurring acknowledgement that there is someone or something taking up space on this planet, a hopeless void of flesh and bone, a hard-hearted human being searching for significance in a world of deception fueling our fire of ill-begotten worth, but NOT after Christ. This “new creation” cannot help but ring and shake with joyful transpiration from darkness to light, invisibility to clarity of self and a new race to run. A race running from selfish and sinful old reasons to live and to run to a finish line laden with “glorious riches” (not to say that our faith is finish-line based!) that make our past selves seem far from what we thought we were. Now is the time to worship a Creator of things past but even more so of a Creator that makes new things in us whenever we call upon Him (Isaiah 12:1-6).
No dwelling can be made a new place or location due to its dweller, but the holy mystery of the Incarnation is that Christ, all of God put on human flesh and came to immerse Himself in our brokenness, to conquer it and demolish it and to rebuild true hope so that we may put Him on and at the same time have Him within us to transform our heart to a new heart of flesh. The ability to become an entirely new creation, a new dwelling place for the most High God so that no longer are we a dwelling place for sin and deceit that encourages us to run and hide from our Heavenly Father but are now a resolute and resolved home for the Holy Spirit of God Himself is the beauty of the Gospel and that is truly transforming. Matthew Henry in his Concise Commentary of the Whole Bible says about Colossians 3:5-11, “the Gospel changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite and passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions and circumstances of life. It is the duty of everyone to be holy, because Christ is a Christian’s All, his only Lord and Savior, and all his hope and happiness.”
So where I am still against the idea of telling yourself that you will begin to workout, or quit smoking, or eat healthier, or read more and talk less ONCE the new year starts, I have been shown that creating a “New Life Resolution” is a wonderful sign of obedience to the One who made you new to begin with. Sure a new year has come and the old one has gone but that isn’t really going to change anything about yourself but that you have a new calender, so if you KNOW Christ (if you got to know Him as a new year resolution, PRAISE GOD, that means you can start living life RIGHT NOW as transformed and as a new creation and that you don’t have to set limitations to when and where God leads you!) do something about it, to show the world your new self, seek now (NOT tomorrow or the next day or next January 1st) to take hold and own your faith and use your “spiritual understanding” if you are truly IN Christ and He in you to live your life as if you are something anew!
Heavenly Father, Provider and Creator of new creations, Your redemptive power and Gospel is truly life changing. Whereas I know that my words are few and finite Yours create universes and breathe life into dead sinners I pray that You and Your Spirit has spoken through me in some way that You receive nothing but endless praise and glory for Your workings in my life. You are holy always and it is Your holiness, proclaimed through your Word and through Your Spirit that I cling and pray to never waver. Yahweh it is you that I seek with honest submission and it is Your will above my own that I pray my life holds firm. I pray for Your empowerment of my life, be my motivation to live anew as Your possession and Your creation and I pray that people’s hearts are softened to Your Truth and Transformation so that they may see and rejoice in their new life that now has purpose. Thank You for Your heart and strength and Your continued conviction to turn from my old sin and praise Your holy name through a life lived for Your glory, in Christ’s transforming name I pray, amen.
thisgreatfire 