Recovery Devotional 274 Strip It

JMD Devotional 274 Colossians 3:8-9 Strip It

But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips! Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices, And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.

I remember an old, round-top, hardwood dining table we had when I was growing up. It was delegated to the upstairs, because its finish was not very attractive, having had many years of use. One weekend my sister Connie and I decided to “spruce it up” using an antiquing kit, which basically paints over the old finishes and smears some varnish over that paint to simulate a respectable appearance. The project was a disaster; and the table received several dark coats of brown paint as more cover-up. Underneath all of man’s finishes was imprisoned beautiful oak wood, marbled with the thumbprint of God that no one could see. The ‘recovery’ was hampered by an unwillingness to invest the time and energy to do it right; to aggressively strip off years of facades and expose what was real. I inwardly groaned at the messy chemicals, the hours of sanding, the multiple steps of clear varnish and steel wool buffing necessary to bring out the wood’s latent beauty. We call it tedious and time-consuming, we usually lack the patience, and shortcuts are so much more attractive to us. Nevertheless, if we really valued the object; one might invest whatever was necessary to redeem it. This parallels God’s work in our lives. We want to reform behavior; but God wants to remove the superficial masks that obscures His image in our soul. It is a long, painful and invasive process that He is committed to; but how committed are we?

Dear God,

Though I try to get away with it, You care way too much to let me take shortcuts and the easy road. I am ashamed at my laziness and shortsightedness and my general lack of character. I keep trying to make a weekend project out of my salvation when it is a life-long pursuit; my varnish is sticky with my own fingerprints trying to rush the job. Forgive me for making You redo so much; thank You for Your patience! Help me to care as much about the rebuilding of my character as You do.

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

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