The Bible is full of examples of people who did not deny their humanity. They embraced their frailties, fully felt their emotions (Jeremiah 9:1-10; John 11:35; Luke 19:41, 21:62), and took responsibility for their actions. We can “own” our humanity as well.
They also taught us how to show empathy to our fellow sojourners, and to rejoice or to cry with them (Romans 12:15). In our humanity, God’s peace shrouds us with stability and security, which produces a lack of stress, worry and anxiety (Philippians 4:7).
God ultimately causes us to embrace the spiritual fruit of His Holy Spirit and to live them out in our personality (Philippians 1:8), replacing all of our negative humanistic traits such as:
· hatred with love,
· depression with true joy,
· discontentment with peace,
· irritation with patience,
· criticism with gentleness,
· backbiting with goodness,
· pride with meekness,
· excess with self-control,
· and worry with the faith of God
· as we are continually controlled and guided by His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
We do not want to be tempted to follow Satan’s plans for our life. He makes his will for us to appear easy and light; however, he is only interested in stealing from us, destroying our life, and killing our opportunity to find true fulfillment in Christ in us.
Some of us are strong-willed, others lack definition of character and we have a weak “backbone.” Yet, most of us are in between these two extremes, especially if we are filled with the Spirit of God. We find joy in reaping what God’s Spirit leads us to sow each day.
We make better decisions for our life, and we listen to God’s Spirit for each moment of our day, instead of making humanistic choices and asking God to bless them. We find joy and peace when we are dependent, obedient and adherent to God’s individual plan for us.
Prayer:
Father God, once we realize that we do not have to single-handedly save the whole world, because Jesus already did that through His life, death, resurrection and ascension back to His throne in Heaven, we enter Your rest and contentedly wait on You before making any decisions. We follow Your peace within at all times.
Your Spirit produces Your character in us, sanctifies us with Your righteousness, and leads us throughout the day from one divine appointment to the next. You help us to let go of our own agenda, so that we can watch as patience does her perfecting work in us, while at the same time, we enter Your rest and enjoy the multitude of Your blessings for us.
Thought for the Day:
We hang out with God as a branch on the Vine of Christ, because the Vine produces the fruit on each branch as He chooses, and we obediently bear the fruit until it is ripe for the harvest; this behavior reduces the consequences of our own decisions, ensures our success in life, and decreases the negative effects of stress and worry in our life.
