Text: Colossians 3.1-4
The Prince and the Pauper, a classic by Mark Twain, is the story of two boys who look exactly alike and decide to trade their identities for a day. The prince, heir to the throne, has lived in a palace his whole life. The pauper is an uneducated street urchin.
Both bring their old identity to their new situation, causing difficulty: the pauper doesn’t know palace protocol and the prince has difficulty navigating survival on the streets.
Both of them struggle with the failures of a changed identity.
Accepting Christ as your Savior means you now have a new identity, too. But like the prince and the pauper, you may struggle with what you bring from your old identity. You might look at yourself, see flaws and failures, and feel like you haven’t changed at all.
The spiritual reality for Christians is that we’re made new by Christ’s saving grace. But the day-to-day reality is we must learn to “set [our] hearts on things above” (Colossians 3.1) and not live controlled by our “old self” habits. Remember, although you have a new identity in Christ, you’re a work in progress!
Today, thank God that Jesus continues to forgive, change, and mature you, as you listen to “Redeemed” by Big Daddy Weave.
