Sometimes thinking about the future can be confusing at the least and overwhelming at best, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can choose.
We all choose the paths we walk on, whether we realize it or not. We may choose to walk with a certain crowd of people and therefore we are on a path based on the groups preferences, yet it now becomes our path because of our association.
We may choose a path because it promises joy and happiness. Someone convinced us this path is the best. Let me tell you, unless it’s God ordained, the end will not be what we thought.
We may choose the path in life because our culture or family are on it. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with what’s familiar rather than thinking through things on our own, but what if they all are on the wrong path? Culture and family, unless God ordained, is headed the wrong way no matter if it’s familiar or not.
What if we are on a path that seems wrong, but it just seems to hard to change? Many time we seem to just “drift” into a path not really knowing why we are on it, yet we have made the choice to be were we are. If you’re going the wrong way, STOP. Decide call out to God for help and he will hear you cry.
When you read what the apostle Paul wrote, he was constantly telling people that they should choose to walk a life that is worthy of a calling from God.
Colossians 1:9-10 (NASB)For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
In this passage Paul tells us how to do what may seem to be impossible in your own strength – Living A Worthy Life.
Let’s unpack this:
1) Prayer is key to discovering and being empowered. Talking with God opened a dimension of grace that empowers us.
2) Being filled with the knowledge of God’s personal will for our live comes next. Without step by step instructions its pretty hard, if not impossible, to build anything well. Ever put together a gas grill without instructions and at the end you realize you forgot key parts?
3) Bearing fruit happens last as we increase our knowledge of God. The fruit God desires us to produce only happens when we are living life as He directs.
If we are trying to live a worthy life without talking daily with God, then we are dead in the water before we start.
If we are praying, but not listening again we are going to be less than successful because we need to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice regularly. He is our counselor and without his advise we miss the boat even though we started out well.
Finally, if we have followed the first two steps we should bear fruit. The fruit he is talking about is the fruit of the Holy Spirit not just good works.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Here is the deal. If we keep looking to ourselves to muscle out a worthy life we are going to fail miserably. God wants us to have a successful and fruitful life, but that only happens when we are doing it his way. He sees the future and knows what’s best both today and every day we live on this planet.
Questions:
1) Will you pray honestly and ask God to speak to you? One of the ways He does that is through His word. If you’re not reading it, you’re not listening.
2) Will you choose to do the will of God regardless of how you feel? Satan loves to fan our feeling to get us off track. Out smart Satan and choose to love doing God’s will.
3) This part is the easiest. Will you choose to be fruitful, not by your own power but by His? This is when our fruitfulness becomes delightful.
The best way you live a worthy life is to submit to the Father’s will and listen to the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Dale
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