A Cornucopia Overflowing With The Fruit Of The Spirit

November 1, 2018

A Cornucopia Overflowing With The Fruit Of The Spirit

“. . . immense in mercy and with an incredible love, (God) embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!”

Ephesians 2:4-5 (MSG)

It is quite normal for Christians to feel overwhelmed by the demands of God. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment of God was, he replied, you must love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22: 37-39). Seriously? Jesus’ response seems so outrageous. Surely he was speaking with hyperbole.  His words seem like a classic Catch-22. A Christian is supposed to love God with all of their heart, soul and mind, and care for their neighbors with the same measure as they care for their personal lives. That’s an impossible standard to keep; thus there must be no Christians. Logically, that may be true, but no one has ever accused God of being logical.

Recall that God sent Christ to die for us while we were still lost in our sin (Romans 5:8), and “even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead” (Ephesians 2:5 NLT). This truth points to the defining characteristic of our faith that sets Christianity apart from every other religion. The Apostle Paul beautifully presents this characteristic: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13 NLT). It is God who does the heavy lifting.

It is the immense mercy and incredible love of God that has embraced us. “His mercy and love took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!” It is this very same mercy and love of God that is “working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” Do you see it? In every other religion, humans reach out to their god trying to justify themselves, and endeavoring to win their god’s favor and blessings. In our faith, our Abba Father has reached down to us: “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Romans 5:1 NLT). Our God continues to reach out to us, and through His Holy Spirit works within us, transforming our desires and empowering us to fulfill His will for our lives.

My Takeaway: If the followers of Christ were trapped in a performance-based-acceptance religion, the radical demands of our faith would only produce the fruit of fear, anguish and insecurity, but we are not so trapped. Our faith overflows in the grace, mercy and love of our Abba Father, and thus produces a cornucopia overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22ff)

Sē’lah

Alex

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.