Colossians 2:20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: NIV

Have you ever been so convinced of something that you couldn’t believe that it might not be true? When I was a child I was convinced that the Martians in the movie “War of the Worlds” were real. I remember going to bed that night afraid that they were going to attack any minute and that my family and I were going to be vaporized by their death rays. I never told anyone about my fears or the dreams that I had because of the movie.

For months afterward I waited for the Martian attack. My fears reached near panic level the night we were driving in our car and I saw bright beams of light shining down form the sky on other parts of town. I was convinced that the Martians were here and they were destroying people and cities with their death rays. All I could do was huddle in the back seat of the car scared and paralyzed by the fear of impending death. And I never said a thing to anyone.

My fears continued until the night our car passed by the source of those light beams and I realized the truth. The beams of light weren’t coming down from the sky; they were spot lights shining up into the sky to attract people to a car sale or some other grand opening of a store. Sounds silly doesn’t it? Yet I was held captive by this false belief.

Maybe this idea is what the verse in Colossians is addressing. You see, sometimes we are paralyzed by rules and perceived expectations that we have of our own faith. We are held captive by false preconceived ideas that we feel we have to meet in order to be acceptable to the people of the world or other Christians or even God.

Sometimes those ideas are just plain wrong. What matters to God is how we love and how we live in light of His Word (the Bible). Other people’s expectations don’t matter to God and yet we often live like they do. Live for God. Love for God. Pursue Him and His principles with all your heart.

Father, may I live for you and only you. Because if I do, I will please you.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 5th, 2006 at 5:00 am and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.