Day Seven - Fixing our Minds on Christ

The mystery is this: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Thanks for coming back to walk through our daily devotions through the book of Colossians!

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for His body, that is, the church. I have become its servant, according to God’s administration that was given to me for you, to make God’s message fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me.
 Colossians 1:24-29

I read very recently that the measure of a teacher is not in what she knows, but in what her students know. Those words rang true in this passage because Paul is not after being recognized. His goal is not in being a highly acclaimed servant of God. His goal is to fulfill the mission that God gave Him: the administration to proclaim the mystery to the Gentiles. The mystery is this: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Do you know what God’s glory means? It’s when He makes Himself recognizable. It’s when we can say, “I see you in this, God!” It’s Christ in us that makes God visible to the people around. That’s what Paul wanted us all to know. That mystery still remains today: Christ is us, the hope of glory.

I have written a Bible study called Victorious. In it, we look at Queen Esther and her life. Did you know that the name of God is not mentioned in the book of Esther? One of the themes of Victorious is that God’s powerful hand exists even when He can’t be seen.  Sometimes we have to look at evidence of God’s activity, even when we can’t see Him. That’s what our lives are to portray. What we are to be shining for Jesus is this: Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Paul makes it clear that doing the Lord’s work is not easy. He talks often about how he labors, suffers and strives. It’s not an easy thing to follow hard after the Lord, but it’s valuable and worth it.

Today’s Challenge

Evaluate whether you are shining for Christ and fulfilling God’s assignment for you. Examine your attitudes and your words. As the Lord to help you in any way you are falling short as His ambassador.

Be blessed today as you are strengthened by the Word of God.  I’ll see you back here tomorrow as we continue our daily devotions.

To view the video devotion, click here.

Cathy McIntosh is the author of Victorious: Finding Triumph When Hope Seems Lost. When you can’t see God’s activity in your situation, you might begin to feel hopeless. You’re tempted to doubt His care and involvement in your life because He feels so . . . absent. Victory feels elusive as if God intends it for everyone but you.

But God is never absent. He is as involved in your life today as He was when He protected Queen Esther and the entire Jewish nation from annihilation, and He will bring victory.  Click here to purchase.

Day Six - Fixing our Minds on Christ

God sees us as holy, faultless and blameless before Him.

Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him – if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
 Colossians 1:21-23

We need to understand that we all have a sin nature. Every human on earth has a sin nature. We have to hold fast knowing Jesus is the One who redeemed us, reconciled us. He gave His life on the cross so we could be cleansed and made holy in the sight of God.  He is the One who reconciled our relationship with G the Father through the blood He shed on the cross.

As a result of the sacrifice of Christ, we are . . .

1)   Holy – set apart for God. Devoted to God.

2)   Faultless – you know how it is when we look in the mirror and see something we don’t like. We think, “I have so many faults, so many blemishes.”  But God sees us as faultless as if we have no blemishes whatsoever.

3)   Blameless. When the accuser proclaims lies against us to God, imagine that the Father says, “No, I don’t hear that. This is my child and she is blameless.” If you’d like more reading on that, visit Zechariah Chapter 3. It’s amazing and beautiful.

God sees us and declares in His Word as holy, faultless, and blameless. Embrace that today, sweet one.

Challenge #1

Insert your own personal name into Colossians 1:22.  Let me give you an example as I declare this for myself: “Cathy, God sees you as holy. Cathy, you are faultless in God’s sight.  He sees you, Cathy, as blameless.”

Challenge #2

Ask the Lord to help you receive those truths for your own and live them out. As I asked a few days ago, what if you lived like you were loved? What if you lived as if you were holy, faultless and blameless? How would your life look different?

The Word of God goes on to say, “if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.” So many times the words “if” and “since” are used interchangeably in the Scriptures. It’s more, “You are holy, faultless, and blameless SINCE you have not fallen away and since you have not shifted away in your beliefs or your thinking. 

We are not saved by remaining steadfast in the faith. Rather, we remain steadfast in the faith because we are saved. It’s an evidence of the work that Christ has done in us. It's evidence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us that make us steadfast in our faith. Hold fast to that today. 

Know that the Lord loves you. He sees you as holy, faultless and blameless. Walk in that today.

Please join us tomorrow as we continue our walk through the book of Colossians with our daily devotions this month.

To view the video devotion, please click here. 

Cathy McIntosh is the author of Victorious: Finding Triumph When Hope Seems Lost. When you can’t see God’s activity in your situation, you might begin to feel hopeless. You’re tempted to doubt His care and involvement in your life because He feels so . . . absent. Victory feels elusive as if God intends it for everyone but you.

But God is never absent. He is as involved in your life today as He was when He protected Queen Esther and the entire Jewish nation from annihilation, and He will bring victory.  Click here to purchase.

Day Five - Fixing Our Minds on Christ

I’m so excited to be here with you once again today and share devotions through the book of Colossians. Today we are examining Chapter 1 verses 15-20. This is a jam-packed section of Scripture.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross – whether things on earth or things in heaven.  

Colossians 1:15-20 (HCSB)

Paul’s Central Message

This truly is the central part of the entire book of Colossians. This is Paul’s message. This is what he wants us to grab onto and hold. Who is Christ? Why is He sufficient? Why is our source of truth and the object of our worship? It explains it all right here in this beautiful passage of Scripture.

How does knowing Who Christ is help us in our daily circumstances? How does it help is in the struggles we face today?

He’s our source of everything. If you need provision, encouragement, love, mercy, grace, redemption, deliverance – all of that comes through Christ Jesus. He’s the source of all things. We need to remember the Word says He created our rulers and principalities, our leaders. Basically, He puts all of our kings, presidents, and world leaders into place for His purpose.  Hold onto the fact that Christ is just as active, sovereign, and sufficient today as when Paul wrote this letter. He wants to impact you in your life right where you stand.

Today’s Challenge

You know I have a challenge for you today and this is what I’d like you to do: List out the characteristics that you know about Christ.  I want you to include the ways that Christ has impacted your life since you’ve known Him. This establishes memorial stones so that you can look back when you face a trial and remember that God was faithful in all of the situations of your past.  He will be faithful again today. God doesn’t change. He is who He is.

When we’ve established memorial stones, we can look back and see God’s faithfulness in our own, personal lives – not in the lives of someone we read about, but in our own lives. He touches us here and now. Establishing the memorial stones also helps us rehearse who Christ is. When we have conversations with others who ask, “who is this Jesus that you follow?” we are prepared with an answer. We rehearse these things in private so that we can declare them in public.  That honors the Lord.

Scripture is Truth

Who we think Christ is must align with Scripture. Scripture is our source of truth. So if we think that God is never angry, we need to look at the Scriptures and see yes, He can be an angry God. Let your perception of Christ and who He is be shaped and formed, not exclusively by your experience, but also by who He says He is in His Word.

Be blessed and encouraged today. I pray you’ll join us tomorrow as we continue our devotions in Colossians.

To view the video devotion, click here.

Cathy McIntosh is the author of Victorious: Finding Triumph When Hope Seems Lost. When you can’t see God’s activity in your situation, you might begin to feel hopeless. You’re tempted to doubt His care and involvement in your life because He feels so . . . absent. Victory feels elusive as if God intends it for everyone but you.

But God is never absent. He is as involved in your life today as He was when He protected Queen Esther and the entire Jewish nation from annihilation, and He will bring victory.  Click here to purchase.