Fruits of the Spirit

Lately Jeff and I have been listening to a lot of podcasts. We've been listening to a "nightly message" too, and we have been striving to actually grow closer to God. In a lot of the messages, I feel like they're saying, we crucify ourselves to be one with God, we put our flesh down, we don't even have a "hint" of greed, and when we do these things and truly seek God, the fruits of the Spirit will flow freely from us.

That is something I love. When you truly find who you are IN CHRIST, things of this world do not matter. I feel like I don't have to be in competition with people. When we try so hard to be perfect and compete with everyone to have the nicest things, what is the motivation? Self and greed. I feel like when we strive to be a woman of peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control, that we don't even DESIRE to be in competition or greed. We DESIRE to be a woman of GRACE. I feel like God has been speaking to me about that lately. That I just need to be a woman of GRACE. Loving and not criticizing, not judgemental, not selfish, not greedy, JUST Loving. It's so easy to get distracted when people around you only care about me, me, me and what they have...but it gets tiring to try and compete. Why even try? That isn't what God is calling us to do. Who cares if we've downgraded our cars! Hahahaha I just have to laugh about it because I could so easily think, "It's not fair, I wish I had a nice car...I wish I had a bigger house...I wish I had..." That's not where I am supposed to be. When the time comes for me to be ready, will I still want the best of the best in the material world? Probably not because I would rather give more money into God's kingdom and missions and church planting. We can get by with something that works and is nice, but we don't need to have the best of the best.

Someone once said to me, "If you have people over and there isn't a spec of dirt, every little thing is perfectly in order, not a sight of any sort of a mess, the home doesn't feel like a home anymore and there is no feeling of hospitality, because what the point of getting it to that degree of perfection is so that you can IMPRESS someone. We should not be trying to impress people because it will just make them feel more uncomfortable in the end. Plus, then the motive is wrong." (That was just a paraphrase)

We ALL like our homes to be clean and in order and nice looking, but we need to examine ourselves so that when we're doing it our motives are correct. I don't know why I'm saying all this, I just feel like God has really been working on me to not compare myself with others and to just be a woman of grace. The woman that God truly wants me to be. Just to focus on Him and not care about what others think. Seek after the fruits of the spirit instead of seeking after material things. It's funny now when I hear people talk about me, me, me and what they have and what they're getting, and all they're doing...is that really what God wants our conversations to be like? In the end, those people usually don't have it all going on and maybe they don't have a great relationship with God, or a great marriage, or God's provision or God's protection, or blessing on their life. I don't know...I guess I just really want the fruits of the Spirit to be EVIDENT in my life!!! I'm so excited to finally be GROWING in God. Finally. (And I like to journal about the journey...it's always fun to look back and see just how far God is really taking you.)