“But now you must rid yourselves of all such things,” (Colossians 3:8).
Our homes are filled with walls, wires, power plugs, the basics. Our closest have clothes, shoes, and honestly, who knows what else we’ve stuffed in there.
We’ve got loot.
We’ve also got termites.
In our homes and in our hearts.
Imagine my amazement that after my “Jackhammer to the Heart” article, an army of fierce cockroaches fled the coop as God shook the foundations of my soul.
Did I mention I hate cockroaches?
In the South, it seems that they swarm in just as the humidity increases and the air pressure swells.
Did I mention that I HATE cockroaches?
I can’t even kill them. I am fearful, slow and…. let’s face it: I hate to hear the crunch. You know what I mean.
Sometimes I try to take the humane way and release them back into the wild, however, this way doesn’t help because we all know where they will return to: my house.
Worse yet, they’ll come back in ten fold having inbred with all their cousins. Mutated cockroaches do not make my day.
Thus, the decree is set: the cockroaches must die.
Not just one. All of them.
Why else do we give termite specialists loads of dinero? We do this for security and for protection against what will viciously eat away at our home’s foundations and pillars; potentially causing a major collapse.
Thus, when we are aware of this problem, it is of tantamount importance to act quickly, thoroughly and, you got it, URGENTLY.
I struggle with all three.
I deny that it is really even true. Surely there aren’t that many.
I ignore that there is really even a termite problem. There are just bugs.
I figure I’ll get to it later.
Then the house collapses.
This is similar to the houses of our souls. As God jackhammers out the issues that cause us to struggle, the cockroaches of bad thinking, misperceptions and bad attitudes seek new shelter.
To get rid of these things, we must act.
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature,” (Colossians 3:5).
Did you catch the “whatever”? The “you fill in the blank” with your specific struggle?
Let’s see this in another action.
Every morning I wake up. I have certain beliefs, attitudes and thoughts. Some are good and some are not. Before my feet hit the floor, all of these are in tact and in full swing. It is my nature and as much as I try to overcome this thorn in my flesh, these “cockroaches” of thoughts are still there, chewing away at the pillars of my soul.
However…
If every morning, before my feet hit the floor, I was to take action on these cockroaches by applying the truth of Scripture to them, it would be like penetrating the rotten wood the termites have gnawed upon. The cockroaches of faulty beliefs, attitudes and thoughts would be thwarted in taking such a deep root in my soul.
Let’s try another example to hit this home.
Imagine your house before the sheet rock was put on the structure. You have wood and you have wires. If we use the example from my "Jackhammer to the Heart" article, imagine the structure before the concrete was pulled. It was a bunch of rebarb wires, right?
So, then the builder or foreman layers the sheet rock onto the house, or pours the concrete. Things are set in place. The house is then filled with electricity and the concrete has rocks mixed into it. Everything has something that gives it an ability to make it work.
But, let’s not miss the fact that the structure of the house and of the concrete are the structures from where they operate. Short of an overhaul, this is what we’ve got.
Now to actually operate this house, we must give it power. We must go to our fuse boxes and turn on the wires we want lit. Granted, there are two sets of wires: those we activate and those we leave inactive (but note, both are still there).
Here in lies my point. When we go to the fuse boxes, we have a choice of the wires we activate and the wires we leave inactive. They are both still there, but we have a choice in what we give power too.
We have a choice as to what will light our house and the wires to our soul.
Granted, choosing what lights our wires is a perpetual task for our issues, beliefs, attitudes and thoughts are like thorns to us. They just don't sting once. They are embedded. They sting over and over again. Course, we don’t want to operate out of these faulty thorns, but we perpetually find ourselves doing so whether we realize it or not and no matter how hard we've tried to rise above. UGH!
Thus, just like living with both sets of wires throughout the house, we also have to live with the fact that there will be more cockroaches that we must choose to dismantle.
"Then, what’s the point if they are just going to keep coming back or if there will always be two sets of wires?" You ask.
Good question.
The Apostle Paul also wrestled with this.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do,” (Romans 7:15).
Due to the fact that we live in a fallen world, we inherently have a fallen earthly nature. Our natural selves will continue to threaten our well being if we don’t do something about it. Plain and simple and as complex as that.
SO, WHAT DO WE DO?
Here’s some hope: even though we find ourselves operating out of this natural self, this painful thorn, what we also have to accept is that we still have the choice to choose which wires we will activate and which we will keep inactive.
We choose what we give power too. Day in and out.
Still doubtful of the purpose behind all of this?
Look at it this way.
One set of wires will give you hope, freedom and life. The other set (what you naturally do) will likely lead you to despair, depression, destruction and quite possibly, death.
If you don’t slay the cockroaches now, then they will get out of control. There is no other way. That is what cockroaches naturally do. However, if you slay some now, there is relief and hopefully, less to come later.
Let’s press pause on the cockroaches for a minute and take this idea of having a set of active wires and inactive wires into one more scope.
Shoes.
Recently, I purchased some shoes that I knew I shouldn’t. I just needed to close my eyes and get out of the store and FAST! But, what did I do? What I didn’t want to. I let my eyes linger and BAM! There it was: major cuteness and bonus, half off. Can you say sold, hook line and sinker?
I’ve struggled with guilt of this purchase and how I should take them back; save the money. But I haven’t wanted to. My weakness in attaching to half-off cuteness got me yet again. UGH.
Now, when I wear my half off cute shoes, I think of my fallen, sinful nature. I think of how I failed yet again.
So why even wear them?
Because I also think of grace.
I think about while I have my fallen, sinful nature all around me, that I still have the ability to put on grace.
Which leads us back to where we started: what to do with the misperceptions, faulty beliefs and bad attitudes that store up in our beings.
“You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. But now, you must rid yourselves of all such things,” (Colossians 3:7-8).
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves…” (Col. 3:12).
The act of putting on clothing necessary for the day is a similar metaphor to putting on Scripture necessary for whatever you are going through, even if it is just going through another day.
Think about it. If it is super chilly, we want to put on warmer clothes. If it is super hot, we want to put on lighter clothes.
If you are going through a crisis, apply Scripture more and more. If you are going through a season of joy, apply Scripture more and more.
For whatever it is, the bottom line is, everyday, we must put something on.
For our houses to be lit, we must turn something on.
In order for the cockroaches to be obliterated into smithereens, we must act.
Thus, to move out of our default natural selves, we must put on the new man.
Day after day, night after night, moment after moment, we must put on the truth that sets us free.
Thus, whatever it is that you are struggling through,(fill in the blank), recognize that as you put on your Spiritual clothes, there is power that comes of this.
There is power in putting truth on your soul.
Just like when you put on a piece of clothes. You put something on that is external to draw an internal effect. You put on a sweater to make yourself warm.
You light your house by using the internal good wires so that you can see externally.
You wear shoes so that you can run without harm. (Unless you’re like me and trip all the time… eh hemm. A different story another for another day) (:
Get the picture?
Let’s tie this together.
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness,” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Everyday, when you see these “cockroaches” in your life, accept the facts. There is no denying it. They are there and will be chewing at your core until you choose to do something about it. They are the wires (the lines of thinking) that you want to choose not to give power too and thus, you render these wires inactive.
Then look at the wires you do want to activate. Look at the truth, the Scripture that stirs your soul. It’s also like picking out the clothing or shoes that you want to wear for the day depending how much is needed.
Then you turn the light switch on.
You put the clothes— the words of eternal life—onto your external fallen man and are renewed internally.
And when you do this day after day, it is highly probable that your default natural state will lessen in it’s power. (For some, whatever the default is in your natural earthly self, you may be able to abolish it forever. For others, the default is a perpetual thorn that must be battled time and again.)
And if you are in the thorn boat, what will hopefully occur, is that as you continually put on the truth, it will take root and generate into an internal effect. The power from operating out of your natural self, will shift to operating out of your new man: the Spirit filled self.
Again, your fallen man is still there—thus, you must continually guard your Spirit filled self with truth everyday and maybe more so depending on the weather (or situations) of that day; especially when your days are figuratively becoming more humid and your air pressure is swelling (cockroaches love those days!).
Then, as you continually clothe yourself with the word, the cockroaches of faulty beliefs won’t be able to take such root and have such an effect on you, for you will have given the power to the truth that leads to life, hope and encouragement.
For, we all have a choice: what will we give power too and with what we will clothe ourselves?
What will you choose?
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"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness," Ephesians 4:22.
“…you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts,” Ephesians 4:17-18.
"My Flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever," (Psalm 73:26).
The Colossians Causeway to Clearer Thinking (and Killing Cockroaches!) :
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: (you fill in the blank)
7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
—>Remind yourself, you used to walk this way. No more. You are choosing not to give power to your old ways, rendering them inoperable.
9 “…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.”
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves
13 Bear with each other and forgive one another
14 And over all these virtues put on love,
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
And be thankful.
16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly
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…
Copy/Content © Candice Irion. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture passages are from the NIV Bible.
