Vanities

We can build our lives on vanities that won't last. Or we can be established in that which is eternal. It's not necessarily in what we do or don't do
Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; give me life in your ways.
✙ Psalm 119:37
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There are many kinds of vanity. We easily recognize the fool's cap of the court jester, outrageously expensive designer fashion, the vices of the gambler. Equally vain, yet far more dangerous, are things that we give such titles to as investments, influence, position. In their proper place, many vanities are benign—some even good. It's our attitude toward them that makes them vanities. Do we think our clothes or our money make us better than others? Do we believe that God finds our position more worthy of attention than that of a refugee fleeing warfare?
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We need today to hear what early Christians were told: Jesus matters. Not just as a Savior of my individual soul. But as the One we're members of—along with everybody else, near and far, who place their trust in him. Our roots are in a manger in Bethlehem. Our trunk is a simple Teacher in Galilee. To our outstretched branches was nailed the Suffering Servant on Calvary. And our fruit is found in the Risen One who transcends place and time.  
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We can build our lives on vanities that won't last. Or we can be established in that which is eternal. It's not necessarily in what we do or don't do, have or don't have, but in our attitude. Have we placed control over the things in our lives in Christ's hands, or do those things control our lives?
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As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
 ✙ Colossians 2:6-7
Prayer after thinking about today's devotion:
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Turn my eyes from the abundance of things, O God, and show me the path to abundant living.
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 After your own thanksgivings & petitions, close with the Lord's Prayer.
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