Once You Were… But Now...

 
Once You Were...But Now....jpg
 

This week I came across a passage of Scripture that I’ve read many times before, but this time it jumped off the page at me, and I want to share it with you.  

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” Colossians 1:21-22 (NIV)

I love how this short passage so clearly and concisely describes our spiritual state before and after our salvation. But what I really want to point out today is the truth of how God regards you after the “But now.” First, notice the huge contrast:

Once you were…                                          

  • Alienated from God                                

  • Enemies in your minds 

  • Evil in your behaviour  

But now…

  • He has reconciled you

  • You are Holy in His sight

  • You are without blemish and free from accusation

Wow! This is the kind of change that a person can get excited about.

1.  You are reconciled back to God. This means you and God are back together. You were once far apart, unable to communicate or fellowship. But now, you have full access to Him and He has full access to you.

2.  You are now completely Holy. There are no conditions on this. It does not depend on how you’ve been behaving or what you feel like. You are completely and permanently Holy.

3.  You are without blemish and you are free from accusation. Think about this. Let the truth of this sink in.

Most of us are extremely critical of ourselves – to the point that we are hindered from becoming the persons we were designed to be. We put ourselves down so easily because of physical flaws and blemishes – “I’m too big, too short, not good-looking enough, too pale, too slight, too uncoordinated” – the list is endless. Then we’re critical of our personalities – “I’m too shy, too introverted, too self-conscious, too boring or too opinionated.” And on top of beating ourselves up, we let others – friends, family members, co-workers – beat us up by accepting THEIR accusations of us. That usually hurts even more.

I want you to see something here. If we believe what God says is TRUTH, then what are the thoughts and feelings which completely contradict the truth of God? – LIES.  Yet, we are bombarded by these self-defamatory lies a hundred times a day. 

My friend, there’s only one way to counteract a lie, and that is by constantly reinforcing and affirming truth. 

Every time one of those self-deprecating lies enters your mind, you counter it with the truth. Memorize this verse. Print it out if you need to. Tape it somewhere you’ll see it often – your mirror, your fridge, your computer monitor, the back of your phone, the dash of your car, etc. 

I trust you will go rejoicing today, soaking in the TRUTH of what Jesus did for you, and what your Heavenly Father thinks about you.

Paul O'Brien