6-19-16

06/19/16

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

We must have a relationship to God, All of us have one but the conditions of the relationship widely vary. Do we acknowledge Him, do we deny Him, are we seeking to be closer or pushing Him away. Any thing we dislike about relationship to Him indicates the hardness of our hearts and the stiffness of our necks.

Without a doubt, every other relationship will let us down at some point. Unless we are in Christ and those we're in relationship with are in Christ. We can't make anyone be in Christ, but must ONLY focus on our own relationship.

No relationship to Christ, or trying to manipulate others into one will certainly make us bitter, expecting, mean, cruel, hateful and generally all those things that have not the fruit of the spirit or the essence of love.

Of the fruits many say they have no self control. They can't help it, they were made a certain way. They must get drunk, they must steal, etc. Yet, is it an excuse for hurting others? DWI killing a child. What about the young man that killed 4 in hit and run and was given probation because his upbringing was such he didn't realize what was doing.

If you have no self control then question your relationship to Christ. If He lives withing you then the fruit will be evident, even self control. Doing things the Lord's (His) way not ours.

Why do we say we have no self control? We all seek fulfillment and we either embrace His ways, or reject His ways (self control) in order to seek fulfillment in some other fashion. The fulfillment we seek only comes in relationship to Him. Deep true relationship, more than the lip service we often see from others. We must cling to Him until we understand why- that grows the proper relationship.

Not having self control is a clear rejection of His ways, in favor of our wants. When we reject His ways long enough He'll still give us the desire of our hearts.

Romans 1

Galations 5: 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh [a]sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you [b]please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: [c]immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, [d]factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

2Timothy 3

If the fullfillment we all seek is sought in the flesh we're doomed to misery. Yet the flesh will always have its tug in this life. If we could ever feel we have mastered the flesh then there is an opportunity for pride. The thorn in the flesh wasn't taken from Paul- there was something there he struggled with clinging to Christ and His grace.

What does God want you to do today? How does that fit with your normal routine? Come to Him without reservations, not a do and don't list, its living in Him. He can change us, celebrating sin is pride.

God is not powerless to change us, but He waits for the invitation. The truth is we don't want to change so we make a lame excuse. We can do all things through Christ, yet we are so self limiting, we say "I can't do that". Its a statement where we're either proclaiming ourselves god. or we just lied. He is God.

We want to identify with the strong, we want to be powerful, yet Christ came in meekness as a baby. His sole purpose was to do his Father's will, and He did that in all things. We switch between our different desires based on the situations we find ourselves in.

Why do we lament the dead? the lost opportunity at life? We are admitting and confessing we ourselves are not fulfilled. If we (or they) could just have another day, week, month year then we would find the fulfillment we all seek. Fulfillment which isn't there unless its in close relationship to Christ. We glaze over the facts that had the dead kept living then in all likelihood they would have hurt us, and tend to look at the missed opportunities for our own gain.

Yes mourn, blessed is he that mourns for they shall be comforted (Matt 5:4). The very spirit of God comes to us in those times longing to be let in. Longing to be acknowledged, longing to further deepen our relationship to Him. The only relationship that is fulfilling. The comforter is there, we're all mortal, we'll all die, will we die knowing Him?