Knowing versus Applying

Anyone can "know" the facts.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience...

Anyone can speak the gospel.  Jesus died on the cross for the sin of the world; trust in him to take the punishment for you and turn from sin...

Anyone can quote the bible.  "God is love"

 

But not everyone can believe this knowledge in their heart and live it.  It's just not "real" to everyone and it just doesn't matter enough to everyone.  These people might even try to apply this knowledge but they just can't because they lack the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Thank God if you are saved and pray earnestly for those who are not.

 

Before and After: There will be obvious change

Someone loses a heap of weight, someone else begins a new exercise regime, another goes into rehab for drug and alcohol abuse.  These are all good changes to make in your life but they don't guarantee a spiritual change that comes with salvation.

 

Don't get me wrong, there will be obvious change.  The things I've mentioned above may be a part of that, symptoms if you like, but the change is not the individual actions so much as the attitude that leads to continual change for the better in the spiritual person's life.  

 

A percentage of people who pick up a self-help book will change as I described above.  The Christian difference is that it is not self-help, it is God-help.  He initiates it, He sustains it, He makes it happen and go on happening until you die or Jesus returns.

 

The obvious change will always include love.  And not the selfish love that is prevalent in single adults who sacrifice all of the great blessings of God to shape themselves after the latest self-help guru.  Spiritual love will embrace God's blessings (which often come as challenges) and will sacrifice selfishness to be changed by the Spirit.

 

Look for it and you will see it.  If it's not where you look, it is doubtful that the Spirit (and salvation) is present...

 

Emotion vs(?) Reason: What is love? What is faith?

How does your faith survive when you don't feel it?  During these times are you no longer a Christian?  Do you have to feel it to really be saved?  How does this parallel marriage, and how marriages seem to end when the love evaporates?

 

There is a huge misconception running rampant in the world today.  It's about love.  Underneath this is the surprising assumption that we deserve to be loved.  Do we really?  And how do we love God?

 

People get divorced because they don't feel the love any more.  But this misses the essential aspect of love that is shared by the Christian faith towards God: "Commitment".  Love for a spouse requires commitment, even when you don't feel the pleasant feelings of love.  Love for God requires a commitment to the mental assertion that God exists and that He is who He says He is.  The feelings may come and go, but they follow the commitment.

 

So do we deserve to be loved?  If you properly understand the nature of sinful, fallen man then the only answer can be, "No way do we deserve this!" But knowing that you don't deserve to love or be loved should make your gratitude for love, and commitment to love, much stronger, so that it survives the lack of supportive emotion.

 

And there is no excuse for your marriage to fail due to a lack of love unless you have failed to love through commitment.  Likewise your faith.

Growing

Every day should be devoted to growing.  Becoming stronger and better.  The spiritual Christian will grow, and grow, and grow.

 

How will they grow?  Not necessarily in an obvious outward manner, visible for all to see.  But definitely in an inward manner, visible for God to see.

 

When you take a look at the fruit of the Spirit, they are more about the inward attitude and character of a person than they are about what a person does.  Isn't it true that two different people can perform the exact same action, but only one of them is loving when they do it?  The other being spiteful or throwing their good deed in your face...

 

Even further, the spiritual person will love far beyond what a natural person could ever hope to reach.  Take a look at those who have ever helped you out consistently, at great cost to themselves, and see a spiritual Christian.  This sort of person impresses even the hard to impress skeptic, and very often they don't even realise just how much they have given.  That is a level of growth which requires the Spirit to achieve!

 

Valentines day

It's nice to do something special for your spouse on certain significant days.

 

It's better to be consistent in honouring God every day in your relationship.

 

Both are great, but if you were only to do one, be sure to do the harder thing and be in it for the long haul.

 

If you are looking for ideas for Valentines day, consider whether your spouse has a particular love language and start there.  But again, if you are not being consistent, it is better to start reforming your relationship by learning to serve your spouse in a biblical way.

 

Do you fear losing something or someone?

What if it is God's purpose that you are to lose everything?  Your comforts in life, the people that you love, your health?

 

Sometimes emotions can't be helped, but at least you can sort out your mind when you have a fear.

 

If it is God's purpose for something to happen, it will happen.  Nothing can stop it.  But if you are His, He will give you the strength to survive and to make it through, either by overcoming or by enduring until the end.

 

Once you have accepted that God really is in control, and that if He wills bad things to happen they will happen, then you can get on with shaping your life with this in mind.  What decisions would be different?  Would you anticipate material acquisitions so keenly, or their loss? Would your focus be on more immaterial, eternal, and spiritual things?

 

If you are not living with your own immanent end in mind, then you will not live as you should.  Jesus could come back at any moment or you could be taken at any moment.  

 

Some might think "at least I won't have to apologise to so-and-so" but really you should be thinking "I should go and apologise as quick as I can, and what is the point in getting upset about this again when I'm going to live for eternity in the joy of the Lord".

 

The balance: should you stop planning for tomorrow?  No way!  Just as God might take your life tomorrow, He might decide that you should stay another 20 years or more! But the length of your life, or the amount of time of possessions (or dear friends/loved ones) in your hand, shouldn't change your attitude.

In marriage

If you are married, do you see your marriage as a parallel relationship to that of Christ and his bride (the church)?

 

Husbands, do you work fervently at your own sanctification, knowing how much your wife can frustrate you, and how much you could frustrate Jesus yourself (if he did not have infinite patience)?

 

Or perhaps you should be more patient and steady in leading, knowing how much Christ has done this for you!

 

The Spirit is not in frustration because this is not a path to trusting God for the best outcome.  Be patient, and trust God, in this we can see the Spirit at work.

 

Wives, what is the flip side of your husband exercising patience?