Confession

 My Thoughts and Attitudes

Colossians 3:1, 5, 8-10

Jesus said it is not what goes into people as food that makes them unclean, but what comes out that reveals the state of their hearts  (Matthew 15:11).  Use these verses and questions to examine the thoughts and attitudes that matter so much to him.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God… 
Am I more concerned about what God is doing in my life and in the world or about my personal agenda?

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: 
Do I hate my sin enough to not just lock it up where I could come back to it if I chose but to give it a lethal injection?

sexual immorality, 
Do I participate in sexual activities God has forbidden?

impurity, 
Have I let bits of the culture around me mix with the Kingdom culture to which God has called me?

lust, 
Do I allow myself to think about what God has forbidden, pretending it doesn’t matter since I didn’t actually do it?

evil desires 
Do I want anything that is going to make me uncomfortable in God’s presence like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3)?

and greed, which is idolatry… 
Do I want more and more of the good things God has given, treating ‘stuff’ as if it were God?

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: 

anger, 
When did I get angry this week?

rage, 
When I got angry, did I lose control?

malice, 
Do I harbor ill will against any individual or group, longing to see them suffer and delighting in their failures?

slander, 
Do I make hurtful comments about people I don’t like?

and filthy language from your lips. 
Do I join in the gutter talk I hear around me?

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Am I just pretending to be a good Christian, lying to myself and my Christian friends, without letting Jesus replace my old self with a new identity in him?