Fruitful Faith

The Gift of Faith
Restorative Faith


Joyous Faith

Galatians 5:19-26  The Message

^19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
^22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
^23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
^25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

For Reflection

I had a running argument with a lawyer in one of my Sunday school classes many years ago.  It involved planning.  He, the lawyer, contended that unless one planned for all contingencies one was not in control of one's own fate.  I responded, each time, by saying. "I made a plan once.  God laughed!"

Sarcastic?  Yes, that was the fun in it.  However, one can never plan for all contingencies.  There are too many unknowns and unknowables to mess up the best plan.  I concede that if one must plan, one must plan loosely so that he or she is not so tied to a plan that he or she cannot alter direction as unanticipated events emerge.  Besides, over planning may indicate to heavy reliance on self and not enough reliance on God.

Perhaps we need to become less skilled in making plans and more skilled in exploiting circumstance.

Pray

that you will be willing to live the life of the Spirit.  Pray that you will have the patience to relax your own agendas and tune into God's agendas.  Pray that you will keep and eye on the objective and let the plan evolve in God's way.