Christians have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of them. Galatians says that the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Honestly that is kind of a scary sentence. It's scary because when I look at my life I don't see all of those things. I see some of them sometimes, but not all of them all the time. Being a Christian is hard. I still struggle with my sinful nature. Thankfully Paul talks about that too, but it still makes me uneasy at times. The simple truth is if the Spirit produces those things, but I don't see them in my life, I am ignoring the Spirit and choosing sin. Either that or I don't have the Spirit and am not a Christian (which I know isn't true).
I think that is what Paul meant when he said to work out your salvation. It is a constant battle to stay in step with the Spirit. It is a constant choice to allow the Spirit to shape your life or to choose to do your own thing. To be perfectly honest, my batting average isn't any better than anyone else's. I often choose my own way, which usually leads to bad things happening. Surrendering my will to the will of God is something that I haven't gotten down yet. I'm working on it though.
I recognize that when I choose my will over His, I put myself in God's place. That means I'm worshiping myself, which is idolatry. I'm working on removing the idols from my life, and with God's grace and help, I know I will have victory. My encouragement comes from knowing tht Jesus died for me knowing that I would have all these problems. He loved me enough to do it anyway. If it was a lost cause, He wouldn't have bothered. So I'm breathing a little easier knowing that while I have work to do, I don't have to do it alone.
Enjoy the Journey
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