2 Corinthians 4:16 English Standard Version (ESV) So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

This is the language of a mature believer in Christ. We can identify that maturity in the way they talk and write. The issue of getting older or wasting away as he expresses it, is a separate issue from his spiritual life. The spirit does not age.

The inner man is led by the spirit and now that the older we get the more important it is to allow the inner man to be renewed daily. This is a lesson which young people do not think about until they reach a certain level of spiritual maturity. Life is full of promise for strong young bodies.

Youth are divided up into two groups. Those tend to the needs of the body and those who tend to the needs of the inner man. Hopefully the former will discover their inner being. We tend to be soulish because the soul is composed of the mind, will and emotions of a person. It is all we have known since birth.

Being born again we have this inner child that needs spiritual nourishment to mature. If we neglect that feeding of the inner being, the soul we continue to make all the decisions.

The inner self is where we will discover where we are in Christ. It will determine who we are in Christ.

The soul can be fed by all different experiences. The wonders of nature feed the soul and there are many cares to be found there. Science is a wonderful field of discovery and cna be a useful avenue of employment. We do not become doctors without science. We live a life full of soulful endeavors but have we done so to the point we have starved the inner man?

The inner man is only fed by His Holy Word. The inner man can only mature by being fed a proper diet of the Word.

Find the inner being by feeding on the Word.

Jesus said “I am the bread of life.”

Colossians 3:1-3. 5a English Standard Version

Put On the New Self

¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁵ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:

When I find it difficult to sleep, my past life appears in my mind’s eye. I can see what I did as a young man who had no control over self. All I can think about is “What was wrong with you? How could you have been like that?” I felt ashamed for him but there was nothing that I could do for him. He is dead now.

Then I realize that my sin nature still remains. I am still capable of doing harm to others, perhaps even more harm because unlike that boy, I have lost my innocence. I know what evil is and what evil does.

Then the calm settles in my soul because I know without a doubt that I am changed. I am His new creation. I am not myself anymore, I am the Lords.

I lost control in that former life. It was only in giving control of my life to Christ that I was set free from the power of sin in my life. My Lord is in control.

I look at self-control differently now. I am free to choose that which is right and good because I am no longer ignorant of what a soul left to its own devices will choose. I have not been alone for a very long time.

He was not wrong when He said “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

I am not alone. I am not afraid. When memories come I see them for what they are now, a reminder that I have been changed because I am not alone.