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We had new windows put in throughout our house this past winter. We knew it would mean having to go room by room & repainting as they were not the same sizes. It also meant that in our living room & dining room, we would need to strip wallpaper.

We had put it off for as long as we could. This weekend was the dreaded stripping. We scored, wet down walls, scraped, wet down again, scraped some more. We had stripped wallpaper before. Many times. But somehow, we forgot. We forgot how much work is involved in getting it off. Hours later, with several trips to HD for some of this & with arms & backs now sore, the walls are bare.

In looking at these now bare walls this morning, this is what I was able to observe:

  1. The wallpaper looked good until we started moving the furniture. Only once we began did we realize how the paper had faded. As long as furniture remained in its place, unmoved, no one would know.
  2. Wallpaper goes on much easier than it comes off. When hanging the wallpaper years before, never did we give thought to the difficulty of removing it from the walls. Not once. Our minds were solely focused on the enjoyment of the paper.
  3. Once the wallpaper was off, the rooms looked so much brighter & larger.

Are our lives much different from wallpaper?

  1. It is only as life circumstances change that we realize how dull our relationship with God has become. There are times that we come to recognize that we let our faith weaken.
  2. Let’s be honest, sin is enjoyable for the moment. That is what makes sin tempting to us. It is much easier to acquire the addictions than to disentangle ourselves from them. It takes hard work & endurance to be free of them.
  3. Once our lives are free, we find that our focus in life is so much brighter. We have joy in & through Christ. Our lives have purpose again.

Paul had something to say about this very thing…

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.” (Ephesians 4:21, 22 NIV)

When Paul instructs us “to put off”, he is telling us to get rid of, to put aside, to strip off our old selves. That will take some work on our parts combined with the help of the Holy Spirit. Paul goes on to tell us the reason we put off our old selves is….

“to be made new in the attitude of your minds.” (verse 23)

This is not a renovation project. This is to be made entirely new & fresh in Christ. As we are laid bare before Him, we then…

“…put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness & holiness.” (verse 24)

As we strip off all that is not of God from our lives, we then become clothed, properly outfitted in & through Christ.

So I ask you….

  • where has your life become “faded”?
  • what needs to be “put off” today?
  • do you need to be made new?

Let God do the renovation project.

He is better than any HGTV designer!

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation & arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10a NIV).