Good morning, Champion. Two healthy trees, not one Galatians 5:22 (NKJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Ok, let’s talk about character and the need for its development today. As we daily walk with God we should be experiencing two things developing (growing) in our lives: we should be experiencing the gifts of the Spirit developing in and through our lives, and also the fruit of the Spirit. These are two very separate things and a healthy Christian always has the right amount of both! Remember, when we talk about the gifts of the Spirit as they are revealed in 1 Corinthians 12 we are talking about things that are given as gifts by God – we did nothing to get them. But when we speak about fruit we speak of things that are developed in our lives as we daily submit to, and walk in accordance with, God's ways. If the gifts and fruits of the spirit were Conifer trees standing at the front of the house of your life, would you have two healthy ones or would one be looking not so healthy? This world does not need to see any more gifted Christians, rather more God-gifted Christians who have great character too – people living lives where the fruit of the life of His Spirit now within is seen and experienced too. Recently we have seen too many headlines concerning celebrities and football players who have cheated on their wives and lived in ways they should not have – lifestyles not fitting well with their influential public roles. Often these are young men thrown into a fickle industry where, very quickly, they have fame, money and anything they wanted. Sadly, many times we see that they do not have the character to carry the gift or opportunity given and it all blows up into yet another embarrassing headline; we have seen this happen in ministry too, which does the advancement of Christianity no favours at all. Success needs to be judged more holistically – just because someone can kick a ball, sing or speak well does not mean they are successful! If the rest of their life has no character and is a mess then they are merely people with messed up lives who do a good job performing on the stage or kicking a ball on pitch. If you want true success, Champion, then be committed to developing both the gifts God gives you and the fruit that it is down to you to grow. Don’t worry, if you have the desire to then the Holy Spirit will help you all the way! Live to be a person with two healthy trees – gifts and fruit, talent and character. God can use that time and time again!
No comments:
Post a Comment