Regarding your previous way of life, you put off your old self [completely discard your former nature], which is being corrupted through deceitful desires, and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new self [the regenerated and renewed nature], created in God’s image, [godlike] in the righteousness and holiness of the truth [living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation]. Ephesians 4:22-24
For so many of us, the Daunters in our lives are there solely because we haven’t ‘put off your old self’. All the things we have even done wrong or failed at or the negative things that have been spoken over us. We hold on to them because for too long they have been our identity. Even if there is evidence of the most amazing change in you those Daunter voices keep you trapped in that mindset.
The enemy would want to keep us tied to our old nature. After all, he has us completely paralyzed by it. He dispatches Fear to make sure our old nature becomes a weapon. That isn’t how God wants us to live.
Who will deliver me from the shackles of this body of death? Romans 7:24
The Romans found the most inhuman ways to punish people. One of the punishments they had was to tie a dead body on the back of the criminal. Now on first thought, it just sounds simply disgusting, the smell and filth of it all. However, there was a more sinister part of this. As the dead body decayed and rotted it would eventually spread to the living man and eat away at his living flesh. Death consumed life.
Paul would have seen this when he wrote Romans and talked about the shackles of this body of death. You see when we don’t let go of our old nature we strap on that death to ourselves. With it strapped to our backs we can’t see it. Sometimes we will get a whiff of the stench but a drop of perfume or essential oil and we can push through. We eventually adjust to the weight of the load we carry. What we don’t see and don’t realize is that it is eating away at us, and our new nature.
Put on the new self.
My boys are difficult when it comes to shoes. If I can get them to wear them in the first place. For any Tolkien fans out there Hobbits are alive and well and living in my house!!! When I do finally find a pair of new shoes that meet their excessive standards the next challenge is getting them to wear them. More often than not I find them in their old tattered torn and fallen apart shoes. Why? Because they are comfortable.
That is how we are. It’s easy to grab hold of the old nature, the old habits, the old mindsets. But this new self is much better for us and offers more protection than the old self ever could.
Not Eligible
I love Lauren Daigle’s song You Say. The line “I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enough” is something I battle with every day. When I was 10 years old I had to take a test in school that would decide which school I could go to for my secondary education. I actually found the test fun and my average score was in the 90% bracket. But then on the first day of the two-part test I freaked out. I had never been in the environment before and my immaturity (most kids take this when they are 11 years old) kicked in. I only got to question 75 out of 100. The second part I flew through because things were more familiar.
However, the year I took the test you either got results that said E or NE (Eligible or Not Eligible). I opened the letter to find NE, two letters that I then proceeded to strap onto my back and hold on to. That Sunday in Church the Pastor sang an old gospel chorus about Heaven and on one verse he sang my name to remind me that Heaven was my home because he knew how hard this had hit me.
It’s taken 30 years for me to acknowledge the impact. That this one event had been tied to me like a dead man, eating away at all the life God was giving me. My overwhelming fear of failure had made taking any exam or test a stressful experience and I was never able to perform to my ability. The enemy created a huge Daunter in my life called Not Eligible and that Daunter has hit me in every area.
Eligible through the blood of Jesus
He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5
It is so easy to let failure, mistakes, other’s opinions, and our own opinions brand us with a Not Eligible mark. BUT THAT IS NOT WHO YOU ARE!!! The blood of Jesus made you ELIGIBLE.
This process isn’t a one time deal either. In Titus, the words are cleansING and renewING. ING the present particle, meaning it is happening now. You have not just been renewED in the past but it’s an ongoing process of renewING.
Ephesians says, ‘continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude]’. Continually renewed which means we may have to decide every day which voice to listen to. We have to decide if we want to keep carrying around that dead man and let it become a Daunter that will eventually kill us.
Fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude.
To truly be able to step on the battlefield and be an Undaunted Warrior we have to make sure we have a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude EVERY SINGLE DAY! If you try to go on the battlefield carrying around a dead corpse of your old life then you will never be able to find victory. I know I do it regularly.
Take away the dross (tarnish) from the silver, and there comes out the pure metal for a vessel for the silversmith to shape. Proverbs 4:25
We are a precious metal God is working with for His glory. Dross is part of the metal refining process. This impurity has to be removed in order to make the metal pure. We have to allow God to search us and remove the dross. It’s not an easy process it requires heat to remove it and depending on the type of metal you are it may require a higher heat than others.
Like a common clay vessel covered with the silver dross, making it appear silver when it has no real value, are burning lips [murmuring manipulative words] and a wicked heart. Proverbs 26:23
Dross can give us the appearance of silver but it is worthless. This Proverb really hits hard. How many times is it easy to have burning lips? I had to check my bad mental and spiritual attitude this weekend when someone rubbed me the wrong way. I have this side of me that really needs the hotter temperature applied to get rid of this dross. So please don’t think for a second I have arrived.
What is an untarnished mental and spiritual attitude? That’s a big one!!!!
Again this is a process and some days you will hit the refiners fire and be dross free, those days when it all falls into place perfectly. Then other days our Savior is spooning gallon after gallon of dross off the top of us. We start to wonder if there will be anything left for Him to use.
Every day we have to choose to have the right attitude. What is that attitude? Living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation (Ephesians 4:24). I think we fail at having an untarnished attitude for two reasons. Firstly, we try to create it in our strength. Secondly, we haven’t put our salvation and relationship with God in a place of priority in our lives.
In our own strength, we are that clay vessel with the dross hiding the truth. It’s when we post on social media and pretend we have this great life but behind the scenes, it’s just clay. One phrase in Sunday’s message hit me hard, “you are speaking someone else’s words and someone else’s experience.” If the sermon, bible study, conference, devotional, etc are just words to you then you are missing out on being the craftmanship of the greatest Silversmith!
I love sharing inspiring quotes and scripture, if you check my social media you will see I do. But recently I have found that I want these things to be realities for me. I don’t want to just post ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ and then collapse in a heap when things aren’t going my way. I want to face life from an Undaunted perspective, completely surrendered to the will of God.
Gratitude for our salvation!
Are you grateful for your salvation? Do the people around you know that you are grateful for your salvation? Now I’m not talking about being a Colgate Smile Christian, they drive me nuts. But can you honestly say it is well with my soul? No matter what happens you know that your soul is well and nothing else matters?
When we live in gratitude it’s a lot harder for the Daunters to attack us. Forgiving others becomes easier when we are thankful for our forgiveness. It makes it easier to surrender and say not my will but thine. It makes turning off the tv and praying easier. Telling others about your hope just becomes second nature because you are so thankful you have to share.
You are not your old self!
Sweet sister, I don’t know your history, I only know mine. I sure if you joined me on my porch over coffee or tea I would hear an amazing testimony of how God has saved you and given you this new life. I’m sure in there too there would be the sad notes of your old self. It’s not easy to recognize her when she shows up. Some of the habits and coping mechanisms are so ingrained that it would be like ripping out blood vessels. But you need to let Jesus cut those straps that are shackling her to you.
She was a broken hurt person that through things she had no control over and some she did, she ended up hiding in a cave. Sometimes the things that have happened can’t be put right no matter how much we wish we could. Like everything, we have to leave it at the foot of the Cross.
Jesus is saying He wants you to take up His yoke. It is so much lighter than this load you are carrying now. A load that it’s killing you. It doesn’t mean life will be perfect. He will remove the dross and make you into a pure vessel that He has shaped to be an Undaunted Warrior.
