Ephesians 4:17-24
“Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.
But that is not how you learned about the Messiah, assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus.
You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”
There was a man that liked to hunt pheasant. He thought he would do better if he had a dog, so he bought one. However, to his disappointment this dog could only chase rabbits. The man had purchased a hound dog instead of a bird dog. So rather than hunt pheasant, as he really wanted to, the man spent some time doing what his dog could do.
After some time the man decided just to leave the dog at home. It was useless for his intended purpose.
Paul has the same advice for us in the passage above. He knew about the conflict between his old nature and new self in Christ. The disciples knew this struggle too, they were called to become “fishers of men”, rather than stay, “fishers of fish.” (Matthew 4:19). Everyone who follows Jesus is called to change. Including you.
The hunter solved his problem by taking decisive action. He left the hound dog at home.
As we prepare ourselves each day to deal with the problems and difficulties of life, we must make a decision. A choice.
Will we leave who we used to be at home and glorify the Lord Jesus as we go out?
Today, leave the old dog at home.
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