Alright, so I'm confused once again about how I am to live as a believer.
Is it that we are to trust in Jesus Christ and then go out and trust Him to empower us to live Godly lives, or do we wait for Him to change us? When I go out and trust Jesus to live in me, there seems to be a lot of times where I see things that don't look so Christ-like. And I also eventually lose control and cannot get my mind on Jesus. Some days I'm just not able to focus enough to trust Jesus to live in me and through me. When everything inside me feels contrary to what I would like to do, how do I get Christ to live through me? There are times when I simply do not have the capacity to love someone or even be nice and the only thing I know to do is to shut up.
To put it simply, I am asking this: Am I to wait for the fruit, or do I go out and believe Christ will produce it?
When I try to live by faith in Jesus to produce fruit in me, I eventually get exhausted and unfocused.
7 comments:
Hi Matt,
I started a comment but it was getting long so I decided to do a new post on my blog. I should have it up shortly. :)
Hey Joel,
I appreciate that very much. I've just gotten caught up in a load of confusion the past week or so. I get it and then I lose it! lol
I get to feeling like this as well. When it first started happening to me(this dry feeling) after I thought I was "Committed" and I would go into dry spells I began to realize that I wasnt really committed like I thought. Years later I would go into morbid introspection trying to pump water from the dry well of my human heart and eventually I came gasping back for breath resting in the Gracewalk truth and taking delight in his love for me at all times and in spite of my failure. Soon I began to realize and observe as I looked back that God was with me all along, kind a like the ol "Footprints" poem. Then I began to realize that he often produces fruit around me kind of like the spider Charlotte in Charlottes web. It was then that I realized that there is my joy found in my delight in watching Him work and fascinating myself in what He does and more often when I see this I begin to discover joy bubbles out and affects others without me realizing it. There are times when I do need rebuke, but I need not despair. What helps me is always understanding the fact that I meant it for evil, but he meant it for good and still loves me in spite of it as I rest firmly in His love grip. Also prayer helps and talking to Him as though he is my friend sitting next to me in a chair or in my passanger seat of my truck.
I hope this is edifying in some way:-)
Case in point? I know how you feel and that is often what the obstical is. "Feel"
Sometimes...and I dont like to dwell on this, but sometimes we do linger a bit longer watching or seeing things we shouldnt and this can affect us in a negative respect and so it may be that there is something that needs to be avoided that may drain us back into a feeling of despondancey that perhaps it wouldnt hurt to cut off in our life, but if we focus to much on that then we will go right back to it. To some degree we do need to perhaps avoid something that may drag us down, but not to dwell on it to much as the Puritans often did.
Thanks very much for your advice. I need every ounce! lol
That is true in my life. There are days when I think I am doing pretty good. My temper is good, I'm being loving and kind and all that. But then comes the day I lose my temper or I can't get my mind on the things of Christ. I seem to get this careless view on sin, but I know I can't stress out over it, because no amount of striving will help me overcome it. Simply renewing my mind in the knowledge of who God is helps me against temptation.
I'm just never satisfied with the amount of love I show God. I'm always stumbling and bumbling. A lot of Christians seem to sugar coat it by saying they only sin sometimes. Or maybe I simply get legalistic and "feel" like I'm sinning when I'm not. I always get miserable with I look inside myself!! lol
Also, I'm curious to know what you mean about watching or seeing things longer than we ought. I didn't catch what you meant by that.
Thanks again for the help!!!
Sometimes...especially today with so much sensuality going on, we can be watching Bill Oreilly or something...or should I say I, and when something comes on and I dont change the channel or something right away I get to feeling bad for gazing a little longer that I think I should and I get upset with myself over it and ask the Lord to forgive and then I wonder if perhaps I really needed to wait for that segmant to even come on or if I should have been watching. Things like that that may have a potential for escalating, but especially for you who in your youth have stronger hormones than I maybe. We do need to put up hedges to gaurd against the temptation, but we dont need to be nosebleed Pharisees about it. If a woman looks good then give God his due for what he has done, but dont dwell too much on it. I just had those struggles especially hard at your age, and still do, but not as much and I find I need to put up hedges, but also not whip myself up about it either. It can be one of the things that gets me down anyway.
I know the exact feeling you're describing. I get that a lot. It's great to see that believers are like me! ahaha. It's so hard for me to grasp that I am a son of God and that I belong to God's family.
Anyway, I get that exact same feeling very often. It doesn't even necessarily have to be with lust. A great example would be just now. I had just been playing a video game and I got a heart sinking feeling afterward that I spent too much time on it. On top of that, I'm watching T.V. right after! So I feel incredibly worldly and guilty because I wasn't spending my time with my focus on God. Hard to explain. lol
Yeah, me too...he desires our communion. Its good to talk to him in the midst of these things we do I think and then more and more perhaps he will help moderate us than for us to go to extremes.
we have a great opportunity to keep that line open with Him.
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