Good Monday morning...

 

… over the years of writing this piece, I have never lost sight of my purpose for doing so, which is to provide encouragement in your faith journey this week.  As I consider the week before us, I pray that these words will bring you love, joy and peace in your relationship with God, encourage your patience, kindness and goodness in your relationship with people, and support your faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  After all, to encourage you in your faith journey is to connect you to the spiritual life.

We are living in interesting times when many of the people we knew in our early church-going years have drifted away from the church or have been disappointed by the abuses highlighted in the news over the years and left.  I was delighted to cross paths with one such person whose faith in humanity has grown, while their faith in the church has waned.  I learned that human abuse, various circumstances, and personal soul-searching mixed to cause departure.  I’m not worried, though, because I know that the source of love, joy and peace… which every human soul needs… is never going to leave this dear soul.  God is good to keep His Word.

Who are you interacting with this week?  That is a good place to start your thinking about the interactions you will encounter.  Are you anticipating a challenging interaction that will stretch your patience?  Remember Whose you are!  Jesus can strengthen you with patience, kindness and goodness.  So often, I fail in this connection because of the impulse to react rather than to pause, stop and think, giving a moment to submit myself to my Lord, and act in accordance with His will.  Showing patience, kindness and goodness is showing Christ in you.

What are you facing this week that stretch you personally?  Remember that Christ in you, the fruit of the Spirit, is faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Here again, for me, it is the pause in my impulsiveness that makes possible the controlled personal response to my circumstances.  Trusting the Lord is faithfulness.  Restraining power is gentleness.  Faith and restraint are summed up in self-control.  We have tremendous power as children of God.  Access to God through prayer is no small thing.  Submitting the flesh… those oft misguided human desires… is a work of the Spirit in us that lead us to actions aligned with Christ.

Whatever your week will bring, I pray that the fruit of the Spirit will inform your thoughts and actions in a way that brings you pure delight.

For His glory,

Pastor Mike