When sin runs deep, we can be tempted to be passive aggressive, make scathing comments, and become impatient and frustrated with those who are slow to change. Yet what if where sin runs deep, our patience should run even deeper?

I’ve known for a long time that I don’t like change. Over the past few years, I’ve recognized my unhealthy grasping for control over people, weather, health, and other realities I can’t possibly sway to my liking. But it wasn’t until the past year or so that I reckoned how much changes of mind rattled me—both in others and in myself.

What we see outlined in Ephesians 4:22-24 is not a one-time instruction manual with promises of immediate success. Instead, it is a place we will return to often, probably with the same struggles, and the order may change. But God is faithful, and he will bring us to completion in his timing and lead us as we put off sin, renew our minds, and put on the new self.

Christians, we don’t need to wait for a new year in order to grow in our obedience to God. Instead of getting stuck in New Year Resolutions this year, let’s seek to change daily. But first we must recognize why we need to change daily, how to change, and finally how to persevere in daily change.