Image Restored

READ

Have you ever looked at an old photo of yourself and marveled at how much you've changed? Maybe you're taller, your hair is different, your face has matured. You're the same person, but you're also being constantly renewed—growing, changing, becoming.

In today’s passage, Paul uses clothing imagery to describe our identity in Christ, but he's talking about something far deeper than changing outfits. He's describing a fundamental transformation: taking off an old identity and putting on a new one. And this new identity isn't random or arbitrary. It's being "renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."

Let’s take a moment to read Colossians 3:9-10:

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

REFLECT

Before sin fragmented humanity, we bore God's image clearly—reflecting His character, embodying His love, stewarding His creation with wisdom and care. But sin shattered that image like a broken mirror. We became fractured, inconsistent, pulled in different directions by competing desires and loyalties.

The good news of the gospel isn't just that your sins are forgiven. It's that God is putting you back together. He's restoring His image in you. He's making you whole again—integrating your scattered self around the central reality of who He is and who He's made you to be.

This is why your character matters so much. This is why the work of becoming—not just doing—is essential. God isn't looking for people who can successfully perform spiritual activities while remaining fragmented and inconsistent inside. He's looking for people whose whole lives reflect His character. People who are the same in public and private. People whose actions flow from a deeply rooted identity rather than external pressure or momentary willpower.

When you focus on one word for an entire year, you're participating in this restoration process. You're not trying to add a new skill to your repertoire. You're asking God to weave this quality into the fabric of who you are. You're inviting Him to restore this particular aspect of His image in you.

Maybe your word is "compassion." You're not just trying to act more compassionate. You're asking God to form you into a genuinely compassionate person—someone whose first instinct is empathy, whose heart breaks for what breaks God's heart, who sees people the way Jesus sees them. That kind of transformation takes time. It requires more than trying harder. It requires being renewed from the inside out.

And here's the stunning promise: as God's image is restored in you, you become capable of stewarding His work in ways you never could before. A whole person—someone whose identity is integrated and anchored in God—can carry greater responsibility, navigate more complexity, and participate more fully in God's redemptive purposes.

You're not being made whole just so you can feel better about yourself. You're being made whole so you can join God in His great work of making all things new. The glory of God is revealed when His image is restored in His people—when we become the kind of people who reflect His character in every area of life.

That's the invitation. Not behavior modification. Not trying harder to live up to an impossible standard. But genuine transformation—putting off the old, fragmented self and putting on the new self that's being renewed day by day in the image of the One who created you.

RESPOND

Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.

• Where do you see the most disconnect between who you are in public and who you are in private? What would it look like for God to integrate those areas of your life?

• In what specific ways might God be using your "one word" this year to restore His image in you? What aspect of His character is He inviting you to reflect more clearly?

REST

Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:

Creator God, You made me in Your image, and You are restoring that image in me day by day. Thank You that transformation isn't about trying harder but about being renewed from the inside out. Form Your character in me. Make me whole—integrated, consistent, anchored in You. Use this year to restore Your image in me so I can reflect Your glory in every area of my life. Amen.