Long time no connect, friends. In the interim, life has been incredibly busy for us with business, life and faith. Fridays are still fasting fridays, we just haven’t had the opportunity to blog. Thanks for sticking with us :).
A little while ago, I was on a group morning prayer call from Faith Driven Entrepreneurs. The topic for prayer and discussion was the Fruits of the Spirit.
“the fruits of the spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness (Generosity), Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control”
[Gal 5:22]
The Group also encourages self reflection. As such we take some time to measure ourselves against that standard, do our own lives reflect those fruits, those outcomes. I see that most often, I fall short in demonstrating those fruits. In fact what I thought of, was of Daniel 5:26 “Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin” which as Daniel translated, means “you have been weighed in the scales and been found wanting, and (as a consequence), your kingdom will be divided”.
In reality, we are all weighed in the divine scales and been found wanting. There is no way for us to attain the perfection of the perfect yardstick, and so we (as Paul says), all fall short.
But there is good news – that what we are lacking is made up by Christ (“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness”). Therefore what we lack is perfected by Christ’s sufficiency. Think of it this way, we were at the checkout and didn’t have enough, but Christ gave us (as a free gift, not a loan!) enough so that we could purchase Eternal Life.
That leads us to the question of if this state of affairs sufficient, do we continue forever in this state? As Paul asks in Romans 6, “Should we continue in sin that gracy may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”. Later in the chapter, Paul refers to sanctification, which IS a process! Sanctification is a process of becoming more Christ-like, of a constant refining and purifying our sinful nature to demonstrate and display the fruits of the Spirit, the life of Christ in us.
So then, let us also spend some time in self reflection, to understand where we fall short. But then, instead of spending our lives in striving and trying (and failing!), let us ask the Holy Spirit for His strength in growing in those fruits.
We cannot do any thing on our own, but that which the Spirit empowers us to. As the father said to Jesus “I believe! Help my unbelief!”.