Good morning to all on this 1st Sunday of April. Waine and I are in Thomaston, GA this weekend enjoying the new house. My husband has really gotten into planting/gardening and is raising seedlings from seeds. I think he is practicing for our retirement in Jamaica in a few years. Last weekend we enjoyed Hailie and Kai at the new house. Nothing like the pitter patter of little feet to make you feel like you belong to a family. The weather in Georgia is finally starting to turn warm. The nights are still cool but the days see a balmy mid-70's. The dogwoods, cherry blossoms and azaleas are in full bloom and the pollen is everywhere. Waine and I hosted a 1 year anniversary for our practice on Thursday with the Community and Friday with the staff at our home. A good time was had by all.
I am continuing my journey in James 4: verses 1 - 17, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that He jealously longs for the spirit He has caused to dwell in us? But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." Amen and may the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.
My devotion for the week centered on the Fruits of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Humbleness, Peace, Forbearance, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, and Self-control. I examined my life to ascertain how many of the Fruits came naturally to me and how many didn't. When I studied further I came to understand that none of them come "Naturally" to me because they are ALL Spiritual Fruit--they reflect my life when I allow the Spirit of Christ to REST, RULE and ABIDE within me! This is what James is talking about. Our natural self will always be in some sort of battle because our natural self has to feed the desires of the flesh. Our natural self only thinks about one thing and that is WHAT IT WANTS. The natural self is always concerned about ME. What happened to ME? What didn't happen to ME? Why ME can't have everything that ME thinks it deserves? Its always about ME, ME, ME. What James here and Paul teaches in Galatians, is to bury ME with the Word of God so that the Spirit of God can occupy the throne of your life. When that happens YOU will bear the Fruits that Paul talked about in Galatians. Bearing these fruits will never come "naturally" to anyone. If you don't have Christ you will not bear these fruits no matter how moral you may be or think you may be. Likewise, as Christians, when we are living in the flesh and not in the Spirit we will not be able to bear these fruits.
Practically speaking I find it impossible to bear these fruits until I put on my spiritual armor. I am assailed from the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep by the roaring lion Satan who wants me to live in the flesh and rely upon my own skills. My spiritual journey allows me to remember to then STOP, DROP and ROLL and regain my spiritual mind so that the Holy Spirit takes over and I am able to relax and ENJOY life. When the Holy Spirit is in control, I don't need to be because I know He has my back, my front, my sides, my bottom and my top. Nothing the world through Satan tries to do can assail me. I am protected. I am in the Bubble of God's love.
If you are feeling assailed today from any thing then you too need to STOP, DROP and ROLL back to the safety of your walk with Jesus. Leave the world behind; it does not love you. Don't worry about what others my say or think about you. You are the Child of the King. Relax and enjoy your status and the privileges that come with it.
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and and give you peace.
Stephanie
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