As I was praying this morning I was spending time confessing my failures, which is right to do but I began to get so discouraged because I feel as if I fail him so much but something happened while I was praying and my thoughts shifted after I had a thought that came to me, Why not think about who I AM and dwell on ME instead of talking so much about yourself!
I began to pray differently, I began to think about who God is and his characteristics:
His forgiveness, if we confess our sin, he says he will forgive us so I began to thank him for his forgiveness.
His mercy he shows me when I do mess up, and I thanked him for that mercy.
His love toward me when I am unlovable, and I thanked him for his love.
His grace toward me when I cannot find it within me to show grace to others.
I began to ponder who HE is and how I can be like him so that others will want Him, because
He is so sweet and such a comfort!
You know I may not always display all of his characteristics but I really realized how important it is to try to walk in those characteristics. The more time we spend looking at ourselves, we will lose sight of who He is and get rather discouraged.
We need to study HIM and spend some time dwelling on Him and Praising him for who He is and get our eyes off of us and embrace who He is and learn to represent who He is by allowing him to change us into his image!
When we go to work for an employer, we go out everyday representing that company, they require different standards that we show the customers. Whether we ourselves hold those standards we take them on in the work place because of who we are representing, how much more should we as Christians strive to display who Christ is on a daily basis because of who we are representing.
The very essence of who God is, is written in his words to help us know who HE is. The fruit of the Spirit is an evidence of his indwelling in our lives, but unfortunately who we are is so contrary to who He is.
Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
The Bible says in Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Who do people see when they watch our lives?
The Evidence of His Spirit living in us or the Old Nature of who we are on our own?
Some things we must consider!
FRUIT OF HIS SPIRIT US IN OUR FLESH
Love Hate, Disdain
Joy Sadness, Depression, Misery
Peace War, Uproar, Disagreement
Longsuffering Impatient
Gentleness Harshness, Hardness
Goodness Badness, Corruption
Faith Disbelief, Doubt, Uncertainty
Meekness Arrogance, Assertiveness
Temperance Excessivness, Carelessness
