as you might have been able to tell from the last post, the last few weeks have been a struggle for me. its in times like this when I find myself questioning God and when I seek Him for the answers to these questions, I find Him asking questions of myself.
i was challenged the other day with John 15:1-11 and through it God helped reveal some of these questions of myself. the main theme here is abiding in Christ and its through this that we are fruitful. and God as the Vinedresser prunes out the branches that aren't producing fruit. i then had to ask myself...what kind of fruit have I been producing? and in v.11 we are told that its through this we can experiencing the joy of abiding in Christ. I haven't felt the joy of abiding in Christ for sometime and it made me take a deep look inside and examine what kind of fruit I've been producing lately.
this brought me to some study of the fruits of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. its so much easier to identify the fruits of the flesh in my life than the fruits of the Spirit -- which seems to be a pretty direct result of me not abiding much in Christ. but the thing that floored me is Paul's precursor to identify the different fruits in Galatians 5:13 when he says this:
"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
we've been called to freedom -- but lately I've been using that freedom to give an opportunity for the flesh instead of using that freedom to abide in Jesus and be more in tune with the fruits of the Spirit to serve through love.
its not easy being pruned by God - but its through this that we realize the freedom God gives us and how through this we can flourish in Him.
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