Nurture your Christ-like nature

“You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness — righteous, holy, and true.”

— Ephesians (4:24 NLT)

One of my family’s favorite pets was a huge malamute dog named Willie. During conversations with him, Willie would yip or yawn in agreement. He faithfully followed commands given to him, such as “go get this” or “come with me.”

He enjoyed the true comforts of a human’s life, as he joined in our family vacations, slept in a bed with the boys whenever he got the chance, and ate like a king.

One morning before leaving the house, I took a steak out of the freezer and set it on the kitchen counter to start the initial defrost for dinner. I’d done this many times before, so I didn’t give it a second thought.

However, returning home later, when I looked for the steak the only thing that remained on the countertop was a Styrofoam package. Puzzled over this, I asked myself, “What happened to the steak?”

When I realized the dog had taken it, I was upset. But it was my own fault. I had gotten so comfortable with our dog that I viewed Willie as one of the family; I’d forgotten the animal nature that lay in the heart of my dog.

This episode serves as a good reminder that just as our animals appear to have a double nature (half animal/half human), as Christians we, too, have a double nature. When we accept Christ as our savior, a seed of his nature comes to live in us. From that day forward, this new Christ-like nature born in us starts to grow to become more like Christ.

However, our old sinful nature is still alive and well, and is in opposition to this new spiritual nature within us. We may want to be like Christ and do what is right, but find it is a struggle to carry it out. We may think an old habit is just about gone, until we are tempted and find ourselves sliding back into it again.

But we should not be disheartened, for growing in Christian maturity is a lifelong process. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we must remain determined to let go of the old sinful nature of our hearts and strive toward our new nature to be more like Christ.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author of the book “Letters To A Friend,” speaker, life and writing coach and nurse. She can be contacted at annetteebudzban@aol.com.