A persistent crying awakened me from a rather deep sleep. It was my three year old son. He had son woke up crying in bed and definitely needed some attention. At that time he had often awoke from cramps, bad dreams or whenever he wet the bed. This time it was a bed wetting incident and we knew there would be no sleep until the situation was resolved. We had to change him out of his wet clothing (neither my son nor I wanted the clothing to touch us) and strip his bed of completely unsatisfactory linen.

However, just because we had removed the offensive clothing and bedding, we were not done. Sure, we had discarded it and removed it from our sight, but there was one thing left undone. We had to put on new and acceptable clothing; clothing that would warm my son and make him feel renewed. He also needed crisp sheets and a comfy blanket to feel warm in. It wasn?t until he put on his new clothing and lay in his new bed that he could go to sleep.

In Ephesians 4, Paul taught, we must remove the corruptible self and renew our mind on things of the spirit. Then we are to replace our old self with the new self, created in righteousness. It?s not enough to just strip away what is unacceptable, but we must complete the transaction by redressing with new clothing.