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TO BECOME OUR TRUE SELF

Ephesians 4:17-24

“With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Pagans do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against Him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

I can only become my true self by living as I was created to live. It is by obedience to the Lord God, My Creator, My Redeemer, and the One Who transforms me from one who was dead to one who is now alive with His Eternal Life working in me, that I become my true self. Disobeying God and living in contradiction to His Word violates my own nature and what I am meant to be and do. Living contrary to the will of God violates my humanity, distorting it into something it was not created to be. I was born a sinner. That is why I must be born again by the power of God.

Turning from the tyranny and rule of “self” is hard to do at first, impossible without the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit empowering such action. It is God Who gives power to do what He wills for us to do, that we become our true selves. The hunger in the human heart that gets perverted by sin and self-centeredness is actually a hunger for God to restore me to my true self, humble, trusting and obedient to the things that will make for life.


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