Daily Devotional for July 14, 2022
Replacing Your Old Ways
“Meteors incoming!” the girl in the space helmet shouted to her brother from the treehouse. “Let’s vaporize them!”
Both kids raised their toy ray guns and fired at the sky. “Pew! Pew! Pew!”
Watching the grainy video from the sofa, Olivia laughed and nudged her mother. “Mom, is that really you and Uncle Joe? You used to be so…fun!”
“We were kids once too, just like you!” Mom smiled. “I’m so glad Grandpa converted our old videos to DVD so we can watch them.”
Young Mom and Joe vanished, and an aerial shot of a football stadium appeared. An announcer shouted, “Polytechnic wins! The crowd goes wild!”
Olivia stared in puzzlement. “What’s this? Was Uncle Joe in that football game?”
Mom chuckled and stopped the video. “No, Grandpa recorded that game from TV. After he watched the tape, he rewound it, put it in his camcorder, and filmed Joe and me. There was a little bit of the game left at the end.”
“If he didn’t need the game anymore, why didn’t he just delete it?”
“Oh, a VHS tape isn’t like the disc in our DVR. You can’t just press a button and delete something. All you can do is record something else in its place.” Mom set down the remote. “It’s kind of like what God does with us.”
“What do you mean?” asked Olivia.
“When you trusted in Jesus, He made you a new person and gave you His Holy Spirit, who is working to make you more like Him. Little by little, God works to record over your ways with His ways. But your old self still wants to control you.”
“So even though we belong to Jesus, we still sin?”
“Yes. That’s why the Bible tells us to take off our old selves and put on our new selves. When we remember that Jesus made us new people, it helps us turn from our old, selfish ways.”
“It’s too bad we can’t delete our sinfulness,” said Olivia.
“I know. But one day, when Jesus returns to make everything new, He will.” Mom stuck out her thumb and forefinger like a ray gun. “In the meantime, we could pretend to vaporize it!”
“That sounds like fun!” Leaping from the sofa, Olivia raised her own finger gun. “Pew! Pew!”
-John Leatherman
How about you?
Do you wonder why Christians still do wrong things? When we trust in Jesus, we are immediately saved from the punishment we deserve for sinning and given eternal life, but the transformation of our lives on earth has just begun. Even though we still sin, the Holy Spirit is working to replace our old, sinful ways with God’s ways. Trust Him to help you put on your new self so others can see His love and kindness in you.
Thank you for reading this Keys for Kids devotional! Did you enjoy the story? Has Keys for Kids been an encouragement to you and your family? If so, would you please consider supporting Keys For Kids Ministries in our effort to continue to provide these daily devotionals to children around the world?