the white elephant

So I'm sure we have all been to a party where you bring a white elephant gift. You know you bring kind of a gift, of a certain value, yet it's to no one in particular. I must admit my family and I go to my dad's work Christmas party each year, we get in the gift exchange and together the 6 of us walk away with a lot of good stuff. We watch and calculate what we can give up, in order to get what we want. We publicize certain things to draw attention to them so that what we really want will be low key. THis year we walked away with hot chocolate sets that the girls wanted and movie tickets so that we could take the girls to see bolt on Christmas Eve. We planned it, we calculated it and we executed.
Romans 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.
Think about those verses, and what God is asking us to do. We are to die with Christ so that we can be alive in Him. We have to give up something meaningless to gain what is meaningful. At the Christmas party we gave up countless things such as a pair of coffee mugs, I personally got rid of a cooking thermometer, mom got rid of some sort of a plant, and Tara traded a candle set for her movie tickets. It was planned and executed to perfection.
That's what Romans 6:8 is telling us, to let go of our lives, our sins, our desires, and become alive in CHrist. There has to be a time in your life when you turn over a meaningless and empty life to God so that you can receive new life in Christ. A vibrant and extremely meaningful restart to life. A new start, a new chance that is far better than that little restart we think we get at New Years.
So think back, is there a time in life that you can pinpoint that you absolutely laid down the old things, gave them to God so that He could fill you with new life? I hope so, if not, attend a church this very Sunday and make that public, allow others to celebrate in your white elephant gift, your life.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!