Ways to Redirect Your Focus 2: Devotion for Saturday August 29, 2020

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Devotion for Saturday August 29, 2020

Topic: Ways to Redirect Your Focus 2      

Text: Colossians 3:8 – 11                       

There is one striking point to note in the ways to redirect our focus on Christ in our bible reading of yesterday and today. It is the point that you are the one to put them to death/put off and not any other person.

In our bible reading of the day, Paul was emphatic. He said, “But now you yourselves are to put off all these …” These things are part of our old nature which sure raises their heads in us. That is why our text called them our members.

Though these sins mentioned in Colossians 3:8 are of less infamy (minorisinfamia) and reproach before men, yet they are of greater guilt (majorisreatus) in the sight of God. Thus any sincere Christian who desire to please God will not hesitate in putting off these sins so as to have a clear focus on Christ.

The five sins of speech/action here are anger, wrath (rage), malicious behaviour, slander (blasphemy) and dirty language. When these are manifest in our lives, they offend the Spirit of God in us. Paul concluded by calling on us to put on the new man after putting off the five sins mentioned above.

Putting on new man means that our conduct should match our faith. If you are a Christian, you should act like a Christian. To be a Christian means more than just making good resolutions and having good intentions; it means taking the right actions.

Food for thought: Have you put off anger, wrath, malicious behaviour, slander and dirty language from your life.     

Memory verse: Colossians 3 v 8

Prayer: God, help me to put off old nature and to put on the new man that reveals Christ in me.

Ways to Redirect Your Focus 1: Devotion for Friday August 28, 2020

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Devotion for Friday August 28, 2020

Topic: Ways to Redirect Your Focus 1     

Text: Colossians 3:5 – 7                       

Yesterday, we read Paul’s call on us to redirect our focus from worldly things to heavenly. Today and tomorrow, we shall be considering ways to redirect our focus on things eternal instead of the things worldly.

Paul noted in this epistle that if the Colossian believers were to live as examples of Christ, they had to put to death certain aspects of the sinful earthly things lurking within them, the sinful nature; the old self.

Two sets of sins are listed by Apostle Paul, which he advised that they should put to death or mortify. The first five refer to sexual sin; the second five to sins of speech/action. We’ll discuss sins of speech/action tomorrow. The first five relates to the cultural background of the Colossians and were particularly deadly to the life of the church: Sexual sin, impurity, lust, shameful desires and greed for good things of life which he called idolatry. These five sins mentioned here directly affect our spirituality and they attract God’s anger too. Every true Christian should be cautious so as not to fall prey of these sexual sins.

It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. Although Paul told them in Colossians 3:3, that they were dead to sin, yet here, in Colossians 3:5, he charged them to mortify sin; intimating, that the work of mortification, at the best, is but imperfect, and must be carried on daily and progressively.

How are you mortifying your body so that you could be focused on Christ and heavenly things? Note that mortification is not a thing of once and for all.

Food for Thought: What are the ways you can mortify sin in your life?

Memory verse: Colossians 3 v 5      

Prayer: Grant me the grace O Lord to put to death all sinful desire in me in Jesus name. 

Redirect Your Focus: Devotion for Thursday August 27, 2020

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Devotion for Thursday August 27, 2020

Topic: Redirect Your Focus                 

Text: Colossians 3:1 – 4                  

The essence of going to learn in a school is for us to improve and to make us have better understanding of ourselves and our society. If after you have studied in the school and there is no improvement in your understanding, it means your efforts in school were wasted. Likewise, when someone repents and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, it is expected that such should have a better understanding of how best to serve God.

It is on this premise that Paul started this chapter by saying, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your eyes on the realities of heaven …” (New Living Translation). This means that before their repentance, their focus were on worldly things. Now it shouldn’t be so.

Because they had been raised, they had a clear responsibility to Christ, who had raised them. They must set their sights on the realities of heaven. The Greek word for “set” means to seek something out with a desire to possess it. The believers must take their focus off the world and turn it to Christ, who sits at God’s right hand in the place of honour and power. They should concentrate on the eternal rather than the temporal, letting their thoughts dwell in the realm of Christ. They were to focus on the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).

Thoughts can influence actions, so if the believers would place their thoughts above and not only here on earth, their actions would please God. Are your thoughts focused on Christ now as a Christian or you are still concerned about worldly affairs?

Food for Thought: Philippians 4:8

Memory verse: Colossians 3 v 2             

Prayer: Lord God, redirect my focus from the things worldly to the things eternal in Jesus name.