...trust God...

“17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds; 18 they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19 They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 That is not the way you learned Christ! 21 For surely you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as truth is in Jesus, 22 to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” Ephesians 4:17-24.

Here, in this text Paul clearly reminds us that we have “heard about Christ and were taught in Christ, as truth is in Jesus, 22 to put away our former way of life, our old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, 24 and to clothe ourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” verses 21-24. We all have to come to grips with the wrong way and the right way to live a truly human life. It is not a matter of getting our bodies to do certain things, but, for Paul, it is a matter of getting our minds to do certain things! We will never understand where our behavior comes from unless we understand the condition of our heart and mind. And we certainly won’t change our behavior unless we change our heart and mind.

We can no longer allow our understand to be darkened, Paul says, and alienated from the life of God because these of these two things, our ignorance (our minds) and hardness of heart.

And to change our thinking and our hearts has to do with Jesus Himself.

Jesus speaks about this in Mark’s Gospel as well:

“14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

17 When He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples asked Him about the parable. 18 He said to them, ‘So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?’ And Jesus said, ‘21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person’” Mark 7:14-23.

We must not to be deceived, then, by what lust and greed and anger whisper in our ear. It’s the mind and heart that matter. If we learn to recognize the deceitful whisperings, to name them and reject them, the first vital step to the new way of life has been taken.

This is Paul’s teaching. Give thanks and put this into practice.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Today’s Prayer

Oh Lord, I come as a beggar, asking for your help!

Help me no longer to deceive myself into thinking and feeling

that my sin is OK.

Please help me to disregard right away thoughts in my mind

and feelings in my heart that lead me away from you!

You are too sweet, too loving, too caring,

for me to live any longer repeating what I permit

to enter into my thoughts and heart things that are dark.

Let me turn to You for help, instead!

And this I pray through Christ, Our Lord, amen.

From the Bible:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” Jeremiah 17:9?

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery” Mark 7:21.

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” Romans 1:21.

“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humanity” Psalm 118:8.