Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
2 PETER 1:5 – 7
I was talking to a neighbor a little while ago who told me that her husband had walked out on her and left her to look after their two children alone, one aged five and the other seven. On one occasion, she spoke to him on the phone and demanded, “How can you do this to our kids? Even if your feelings toward me have dried up, what about our kids?” Surprised, he responded, “No one else has ever asked me that. Everyone says, ‘What about you? How do you feel? You need to be true to your feelings and do what you want to do.’ Therefore, I haven’t really thought about how this would affect them.”
We are immersed in a culture that thrives on pleasing “self,” but we need to go against the flow and set Christ as our goal rather than self-fulfillment. When we do this, the fruit of his Spirit will be evident in us, and we will not sabotage our destinies by making bad decisions. Society’s answer is always, “Do what feels right for you; go with your feelings; do what your heart is telling you to do.” But this is just an excuse that enables us to abdicate our personal responsibility and forget about the consequences to our lives and the lives of others. If we want to find God’s best for our lives and truly maximize our potential, we must choose to live a different way. We need to learn to love self-control.
Remember that it is a consistent commitment to doing the “basics” of the Christian life, combined with a constant “refilling” of the Holy Spirit, that will produce the right fruit in our lives.
MOMENT OF REFLECTION
In what areas of your life is the fruit of the Spirit growing abundantly?