Clean the House

Colossians 3:6-8 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 
 
DO you believe “The wrath of God is coming”? Too many people would say, “No.” as they believe God accepts all people into heaven. After all, we are “good enough”, aren’t we? In many ways we try to justify and even make excuses for what we do. For example, in response to God’s teaching us here to put off anger, we might say, “But he made me so angry!” or “What she did to me was unforgivable. I can’t be around someone like that.” We put the blame on someone else for our emotions, speech and attitudes. We even blame them for our own sinful actions.
    This has been the way of ungodly thinking since Adam blamed his sin on his wife, and Eve blamed her sin on the snake. (See Genesis 3.)
    But what is true? God has created you in his image, and that means you have a mind to know truth from lies. You have a mind to know what’s right and what’s wrong. Your Father, the Creator God, wants you to use your mind to decide to do what is true through him.
    If you respond in anger to someone, you are deciding to be angry. If you hold malice toward someone, you have decided to be spiteful. If you use vulgar language, you have decided to speak it. No one “makes” you live the way you do. These are your decisions.
    How will you decide what to do? Will you be as Jesus? Will you decide to express humility and understanding instead of anger? Will you decide to forgive instead of hold malice? Will you decide to speak blessing instead of cursing? Will you decide to follow Jesus in your heart?
    Remember, if you decide against God, his wrath will come upon you. The Bible says you are born more bad than good in God’s sight. You become “good” to be with God when you confess, “I need you, Jesus. Be my Lord and Savior. Guide me on your way of truth.”
    Receive God’s teaching. Put off sin, and put on Christ.
 
Life Thought: Get in control with Jesus’ power.