Hope Unfolding by Becky Thompson

Author:Becky Thompson [Thompson, Becky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60142-813-4
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2016-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

FREE FRUIT

Scripture describes what happens when God operates through us as the fruit of the Spirit. Just like the fruit a tree produces tells us what type of tree it is, we can tell when we are cultivating a relationship with Jesus by the fruit that our lives produce. Scripture describes these fruits as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.10 When we see these attributes present in our lives, we can be confident that God is at work within us and through us.

But I want you to think about yesterday. Maybe the baby woke up early, and you didn’t get the well-rested start you wanted. Or maybe the kids weren’t in the best mood as they left for school. Maybe beginning the day a step behind has made you feel as if you’re trying to catch up — running toward a goal that seems to always be sliding just a little bit farther away. The end of the day finally arrived, and you fell into bed — but there wasn’t anything left. You had run out. You didn’t have the time or the energy to give yourself or your spouse any attention. There just wasn’t any love or any energy or any grace left in your tank.

Friend, if we are going to be continually pouring out the contents of our hearts as we care for those around us, then we must stay rooted in the Source of the fruit of the Spirit. Not the fruit of Becky or the fruit of your hard work.

You know, I have read many articles that say if you want to have a better relationship with your spouse, you need to do x, y, and z. If you want to have more patience with your kids, you need to do x, y, and z. And if you want more peace in your home, then you need to do x, y, and z. And many of those ideas just might work. They might produce temporary joy, temporary love, and temporary peace. But they will run out. Love and patience and peace that we try to manufacture with our own hands will always run out because these things aren’t coming from the overflow of our hearts.

We are just like the woman at the well who went every day carrying a heavy jar back and forth just to get to the next day. No matter how much she carried away from the well, when it ran out, it was gone. She got what she needed and left. But Scripture says that when she realized that Jesus was the Christ, the Savior of the world, she left her jar and went back to the city from which she came. She told everyone she knew.

She had arrived at the well carrying the jar to fill up with temporary resources, but she left as the vessel that spilled out the Truth of Jesus, the Messiah, on everyone she encountered. What a beautiful picture of our own lives!

We

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.