“God wanted to make known to those among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Colossians 1:27 (HCSB)

Christ in you, the hope of glory.  I think we misread that sentence a lot.  Christ IN you—I think we read Christ AND you, or sometimes Christ OR you.  That, after all, is the desire of our flesh.  We want to say that we have the strength to bring God glory on our own.  We want to say that we are doing fine and hey, isn’t it great that Jesus is here too?  But He’s not just there with us, and he’s not just an option we can choose in the event we eventually fail.  To have that mindset is to have failed already.  We are, according to the Bible, DEAD without Christ.  He created us, He sustains us, He rules over us.  Without His blessing and assistance, we would not draw our next breath.  For that matter, without his blessing and assistance we would melt into non-existence as our bodies and spirits suddenly ceased to be.  Disconcerting, isn’t it?  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Live today with that in mind; that the life-sustaining ruler of the world lives in you and wants to use you to bring glory to God.  Ask yourself throughout the day, “Is God being glorified in what I’m doing right now.”  Are you on task?  Are you doing what you’re supposed to be doing where you’re supposed to be doing it?  If the answer is no, make a change.  If the answer is yes, then smile and enjoy the glory of God.  “Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men.”  (Colossians 3:23)