Good morning people who make a daily decision to put off the things of the flesh.

Colossians 3:5-11 NIV Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

In this Scripture we see a mystery that many people struggle with.

The truth is that we died to sin and now we are alive in Christ. The truth is that we are a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come. This is the truth of our spiritual reality as ones who are hidden with Christ in God.

And yet to people who are living in this truth, Paul writes the following:

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

When we accept Christ, our spirit is born again, but our soul and our body are not. Our physical body continues living; the body you had before you got saved is the same afterwards. And it is also true in our soul; our mind, will and emotions.

Yes, God is greater and there is joy unspeakable in His presence, but salvation starts a journey of sanctification and becoming more like Jesus.

Our mind has old ways of thinking that need to be renewed.

There is repeated instructions in God’s Word about the renewing of our mind. Old pathways need to be replaced by new ways of thinking. Old habits and ways of behaving need to be put off as we choose to keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

Wrong thinking and wrong behaving is not evidence that we aren’t born again, but it is evidence that we need to put some things off and we need to be renewed in our minds.

Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

The greatest and most lasting renewing of our mind comes with an increasing revelation of God Himself. The more clearly we see God, the more we will be empowered to become like Him.