I trust everyone had a great Christmas, and that you had a good time with your family. I heard a story of a woman who was coming out of a Christmas Eve service and stopped to talk with her pastor. She told the pastor that earlier that evening she had met a bearded fellow carrying a large sack over his back. The pastor told the woman that he did not like the reference to Santa Claus. The woman explained, “It was my son, home from college.”
This is the time of year that people make New Year’s resolutions. We all want to start the year by looking to make some changes in our lives. But not all changes are growth. And unless you are talking about your waist line, growth is better than change. We want growth in our lives and character, not just change. Many times people want to change because the pain of not changing is so bad, but then circumstances change, the pressure is off, and we go back to our old ways. We are like the two guys adrift on a raft in the open sea, and it looked bad for them. Finally one of them, frightened, began to pray: “O, Lord I have broken most of the commandments . I’ve got some pretty bad habits-I drink, I curse, I steal, I treat people like dirt. But if my life is spared now, I promise you that I’ll change, that I’ll never again curse, that I…I….” Suddenly his friend cried out to him, “Wait, Josh. Don’t pray anything else. I think I see another ship!”
I am glad that we are able to “start fresh” regularly, and not just at the beginning of the year. When God “started fresh” with Adam and Eve, He gave them a command that was to give them a successful life. Let’s look at it.
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” – GEN 1:28
God wants you to be fruitful, to multiply and to have dominion. EVERYBODY WANTS TO HAVE DOMINION –TO BE THE BOSS—THE BIGGER, THE BETTER! BUT YOU CAN’T JUST GET TO BE BOSS WITHOUT THE OTHER TWO PIECES OF THIS PICTURE: BEARING FRUIT AND MULTIPLYING.
God commanded Adam and Eve to be “fruitful”. Many people look at successful Christians and say, “I would like to be like that”. They see a Christian family and say, “I would like to have those characteristics”. They are looking at and partaking of the fruit of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. – Galatians 5:22
Fruit is not for you, it is for others to partake of. People need to walk up to you and take a piece of patience, or joy from you. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is for them, not you. The life of the successful Christian is having the fruit of God’s Spirit available so that others can take from it. When our lives are a channel of God’s love and blessing to others, we are well on our way to experiencing the life God has for us.
This is not just something you can do… you need God working in your life to produce it. If you have His Spirit in you, everyone around you will appreciate it.
Just imagine if you could be a resource for those you love, showing them the goodness of the Lord? What if just being around you was a great blessing to others? True greatness and success starts with allowing God’s spirit to rule us and others receiving from Him through us.