RESOLUTIONS ANYONE?!

Pastor Larry Gatlin, So. Oregon

 

Happy New Year!!!! Have made all those resolutions yet? I am determined to not make very many this year. I would like to loose weight and walk in greater health than I have been.

 

    But there is one thing that I would like to see happen. Not only in my life but in the lives of all believers. What is it? I would like for all of us to resolve to walk deeper in the fruit of the Spirit than we ever have before.

 

    I have often said that if Christians would simply behave like Christians we would see 99.9% of ll Church and people problems solved.

 

   Walking in the Spirit will require that we study the Fruit of the Spirit atep by step. That we take each one, discover it's full meaning and then aply them to every aspect of our lives.

 

    Forsaking all self motivation and laying aside all works of the flesh. WOW!!!! That sounds like an almost impossible task.

 

    But if it were impossible God would never have placed them in His Word. He would not give us an assignment that we could not accomplish with His help. "All things are possible to him who believes." (Mark 9:23) Some times we have to pray, as in the next verse "I believe help my unbelief."

 

    It is in desiring to walk in the Fruit of the Spirit that we will begin to come to the point that Father desires for us. The point of truly living as a Christian. Not just in words but in every aspect of our lives.

 

   If you place apples, oranges, and bananas in a bowl you three types of fruit. But when you describe what's in the bowl you don't say I have fruits in the bowl, you say I have fruit in the bowl. When we describe The Fruit of The Spirit, we don't we have the fruits of the Spirit we say we have The Fruit of The Spirit. Why, because we are to desire that all nine of them be working, or visible in our lives on a daily basis.

   

 You might ask if that is possible? Yes, but we have to desire it and work for it. No, our Salvation is still by Faith and by Grace, but we have a responsibility to go after Gods promise. To claim them and the apply them to our lives.

 

    The Fruit of The Spirit are;

 

Gal 5:22-26 NKJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ₂₃ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ₂₄ And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ₂₅ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ₂₆ Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

     You want something to aim at in this New Year of "2007"? Determine that in this New Year you are going to walk in "The Fruit of The Spirit". Study The Fruit of the Spirit and then apply it to your life.

 

Pastor Larry