Yet I still let it get me down. Today was just one of those days. I was irritated by everything!
Why do I have to get up and go to class?
Why do we waste time in my classes?
Why do some people think they know it all?
Why do we have to have homework?
Why does it have to be cold???
And then I went to my book group where we're reading "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan. I was frustrated because of my lack of patience, but not to worry, God wasted no time in convicting me and pointing me in the right direction. In the chapter we read for today Chan talked about the Fruit of the Spirit. He made an interesting distinction in the verses from Galations 5 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." He wrote how the "fruit" in the verse is singular, it doesn't say the fruits of the Spirit, "but that one fruit incorporates all the different elements that follow (love, joy, peace, etc)" (Chan).
It's like a fruit salad, it all comes as one package. When we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, all of the fruit will flow forth from us. Not just patience, or kindness, or whatever one we feel like we need more of at the time.
He went on to write how we cannot simply muster up more patience by gritting our teeth and determining to be more patient. We aren't strong enough or good enough on our own to do that. We cannot simply, become more peaceful or joyful. We spend a lot of time trying though, don't we?
I realized we have a tendency to become rather legalistic about it all. We know the sign of growth and faith is the fruit of the Spirit and we know that is what God desires from us, so we spend all our time trying to do those things, instead trying to be who He wants us to be. Chan went on to write that we need to focus our energy not on garnering more will power, but on asking for help from He who can change us, permanently, for the better. Why do we waste our time trying to change ourselves, when the only lasting, heart change comes from our Father? Why don't we ask him to put the fruit of His Spirit into our lives and then spend more time "with the One we want to be more like" (Chan).
We completely forget to give the Holy Spirit his due and ask Him to work in our hearts, to create that lasting change in our lives. Just gritting our teeth and vowing to be more patient is not going to produce lasting results. But when the Holy Spirit moves and works in our heart...that is awesome change.
We can't get past our pride and just let God do His work. We insist on helping, on inserting our two cents. God doesn't need us. He chooses to use us for His glory, but he sure as heck doesn't need us. Why don't we let Him mold and shape us into the men and women He intended us to be? Only His hands will make us beautiful and purposeful, for His glory. Anything else is for us and our glory, and who do we think we are to aspire to that kind of glory?
When the Holy Spirit is able to work in our hearts, His fruit, all His fruit, should come forth, almost naturally! We shouldn't have to grit our teeth, cross our fingers and hope for the best. We have the God of the universe on our side, why don't we ask Him for help?
Just think of everything that could be accomplished for His glory if we swallowed our pride and let Him work through us!
I'm learning to do this.
