Growing

P 2969 Hope maintenance.

/ DVH

“Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energises you. Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen!”Ephesians 3:20-21 TPT. Jesus is our steadfast anchor and hope, and the bible is hope’s back-up and proof that what we know is true. Finally, our praise and prayers mirror what we hope for! 

You and I need to take the time to protect our own hope. We can’t always just jump in and start out with faith, because our faith can be weakened by circumstances, emotions and trouble. Christ’s birth, life, and death have established HOPE on the earth, permanently.”To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.“ Colossians 1:27.This is not a transitory thing, it is an eternal thing. It is an established, firm, foundational fact. We cling to His incredible goodness. Faith will spring up in us, as we continually maintain our hope in Who He is and what He did for us.

We need to remind ourselves about what the Bible says, instead of focussing on what is going on around us or inside us. We ask the Holy Spirit to remind us of the incredible things the Lord has already done in our lives that are good, filled with hope, grace and truth. Verses like those two above, are so helpful, they remind us that God has dominion over everything else that is going on, and He doesn’t just want to answer our prayers — He wants to bless us while He is doing it! He has our best interests firmly established in His heart.

Here is another well known verse that show us ‘hope’s purpose.’“May Your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in You.” Psalm 33:22. Our hope is an investment in God’s greatness, not in our ability to believe! There are times when we hope for things that are bigger than our faith seems to be. However, God is always good, He will get us there, He will turn our hearts toward Him! Just be honest with Him and ask for His help. When we asked Jesus to save us He made our heart His home. We could be bad at living like that is a reality, or good at it, none of that makes any difference at all to HIS goodness.

Things happen all the time in this life, stuff like —- a loved one is desperately sick, or the job we want to be available isn’t. Maybe we need somewhere safe to live. Of course we pray about such desperate things, but our hope needs to be in WHO He is, not just the answer to our prayers. If our hope is in the answer to our prayers then our hopes can be shattered if things don’t turn out the way we think they should. We must start with the known, the reality, the substance of Who Jesus is — His character, and His attitude toward people like me, we are the people He loves. All of that is in the bible.

Sometimes we desperately hope for things that are beyond our immediate scope of belief. Pray and ask Him to walk you through your failing hope and faith, until you are again standing on His goodness. Things like these are a place for us to continue to stretch our faith IN HIM. Here is an example: it is one thing to believe God can get you to work on time when the trains are late — and totally another to believe He can heal someone who is severely depressed! He can! But we can drive ourselves batty struggling and striving to stretch our hope and make our faith into something it isn’t … yet. When you find a weak place, let Him be your strength.

You and I might have a mustard seed size of faith, and still grow a big tree that will shelter others. The important factor in that sentence is time. We never arrive, we are always in transit in this life – that’s part of the adventure. We need to invest our hope in His goodness, like we invest in breathing or having enough water — not in our ability, or inability to pray. Let His goodness be a fixed point. Then hope will not disappoint you. HE never changes. But our ability to hope in Him answering our prayers might easily be swayed or changed with adverse  circumstances. 

That’s why our hope must be in Who He is. Our thoughts aren’t about things like – did He answer my prayer this week, last month, last year? Our prayer needs to be fixed to the only true fixed point – is Jesus God or not? Can God do anything or not? Anything else leaves us open to being knee-capped by the other guy when we get overwhelmed by whatever is going on. God is good. He gives good answers. No matter how things look now, He’s got this. He’s with you in what is going on. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. We hang onto our hope in Him, until we hit faith and we return to the certainty of Who He is … now we have substance … we aren’t trying to push faith out, we know that we know Who He is.

Silence from heaven is never final … it means it is faith-stretching time – during that time we need to dig into our hope chest and remind ourselves of Who He is and what He has done for us. Hope maintenance facilitates growing and strengthening OUR faith. We stop using other people’s experiences to push us along, and start developing our own history, our own stories of His grace in action. Then we can’t be stopped. Remember:  “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12 . I believe that hoping in God’s goodness is the key that breathes life into overwhelmed struggling, sad hearts. Bye. 👋

P 2839 Waiting precedes fruitfulness.

/ DVH

I enjoy this time of the year because I love looking at, and smelling the fruit of summer. Plums, apricots, peaches, mangoes, nectarines, raspberries, strawberries etc. However, waiting for harvest is time consuming. All that weeding, fertilising, watering etc. as well as pruning, which creates more fruit – it all takes time. Fruit trees can even  take a long time to produce fruit – most immature trees take 3-5 years. 

Our mango tree, which was originally grown from a seed, took about 7 years to start fruiting. But boy! That first crop was sooooo yummy. 🥭 Meanwhile, we had to fight birds, possums and creepy crawlies to get it. We have a pretty lush front garden, but it is periodically invaded by big fat locusts. Hubby kills them off one at a time and it gives him great pleasure. There is no John the Baptist at our house! We enjoy our plants and fruits, and we ain’t sharing it with bugs! Sadly, insects love those fresh green shoots – it’s all salad greens to them.

In the natural, there is no point in periodically digging up a newly planted seed to see how well it is growing. You will kill that plant stone dead!  So, today, I want to briefly look at Mark 4:26-29 – Jesus knew a lot about horticulture, He often used illustrations about growing things. “He (Jesus) also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ALL BY ITSELF the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

When it comes to growing stuff, we’ve found experience helps, but everyone is in the dark, until that fledgling seed pops its stalk and leaves through the ground! Then we are off. Clipping this, feeding that, regularly watering and protecting the plants. I have huge admiration for farmers! Such patience. The time it takes for any sort fruit to grow is labour intense and tedious. We’ve had a lot of storms this year, and they’ve manage to whittle down and eliminate the potential little nubs of our would-be mangoes. Fortunately we have still had had a good crop – some were 900grams!  

The thing is, when it comes to spiritual fruit, the process of growing His graces in our lives is very similar to growing actual fruit.It takes time!  First God plants the seed, (the Word) and then it is fertilised by His Grace kissing it. We know we have a seed that is just for us because He highlighted something when we read that particular scripture and now we’ve start praying about what we are to do about it. That kind of waiting on God waters the seed. We are saying to the Holy Spirit: “What You have given me is important, and I am paying attention to it.”

Feeding whatever grace the Lord wants to bring out in our life, comes from seizing opportunities. This, just like edible fruit – is not an instant process. Unfortunately, right after we have read the Word, our enemy often comes along to steal it. he will try to explain it away, or point out that you were given it so you can tell someone else. he will do anything to distract us and prevent growth in that seed. Father God, however, will bring opportunities across our path for us to cultivate this new fruit. I would just like to mention that those opportunities are hardly ever convenient, and they involve dedication.

What keeps us, keeping on, is the fact that God is at work, to His will and good pleasure!! This is what makes His Word flesh in our lives. It goes from theory, or thought into actions. I need to mention here that the first few times we try to obey might be quite difficult. We have already a tidy little group of cultivated weeds in our lives  – they are excuses, happy little reasons why that scripture isn’t there for my attention so I don’t have to do whatever it is. 

Then comes the assault of the rampant weeds, which grow more quickly than your plant!  Weeding is hard work. It goes against the grain and it pains the back!! Two roads face us at this moment, one leads to the death of that seed God Himself spoke into life, and the other leads to dying to self, so His seed will prosper inside us and start pushing against any resistance. The seed of God’s word will always seek the light of His love and His enabling. Remember, the Holy Spirit is always there to help us – but He will not do it for us! 

But ignoring our weariness in the well-doing, our feelings or even stinky attitudes is actually hard work. As soon as I get to this stage, and I know that have done everything He asked me to do – I stand. The bible says in Ephesians: “…and having done everything, … stand!”  Whenever the enemy fires fiery darts at me from others or my own thinking I give the whole situation over to the Lord and leave it there. On purpose. 

There are times when I have to give stuff back to Him over and over again, because those weeds of doubt and insecurity have grown quite large. So if He gives me something to do as all this is happening, I do it. I am enlivening my faith – that is hard work. Then I go back to standing and WAITING. Growing God’s fruit of Grace takes time, and I want to be in this battle for the harvest of fruit in my own life. I want to see that fruit growing so I can share it with others… Bless you, bye for today. 👋

P 2757 Flowers ain’t fruit!

/ DVH

We have a large mango tree in our backyard, and it has grown heaps in the last couple of years. Now its taller than our house. However, last year there were hardly any flowers on it, and what was left were little nubs of potential fruit, that got blown off by some high winds. That large tree gave us about 12 mangoes. Boy were we disappointed. Especially after feeding it, watering it, and protecting the fruit from the birds of the air who think they have a right to eat anything and everything. Stupid noisy minas. Grrrr. 😖 Where was I again? Hah! Growing fruit … hmmm.

“BUT the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.”Galatians 5:22-23 TPT. Did you get that? The life and health of any tree is the reason we can produce good fruit. Our mango tree must have had a tummy ache last year or … it was a bad weather year for mangoes. Sadly we can’t use that excuse for spiritual fruit!

The thing is, this year I totally refuse to get excited about fruit any more, even though this year our tree is covered in mango flowers. So what happened? Where did my enthusiasm go? I learnt something. I learnt flowers ain’t fruit! Some fruit trees have masses of beautiful flowers everywhere, they smell so pretty … spring is in the air, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the bees are buzzing away around each little flower. and the whole idea, at that moment that there may be no fruit from that tree is far far away … 

The Lord Jesus had that happen to Him once. He was hungry and went to a fig tree that should have had fruit on it but it had none. (Read Mark 11:12-25) So the Lord used that tree as an object lesson for the disciples. We should pay careful attention to that little story. I’ve heard people speak about it in sermons — they said that this bit means that, and that means this, and the tree is the other thing … on and on…  Do you know what I think? I think if our trees/lives have no fruit of the Spirit, then we better look hard at our tree and find out what’s ailing it! 

Simply because fruit trees are meant to produce fruit. And we know that the Holy Spirit living within us will always want to produce His fruit. So what does no fruit mean? I think I’ll just leave you to think on that, I did. Long and hard!  You know we can comfort ourselves by the fact that our lives have produced pretty blossom flowers that smell so lovely – but! … Ya can’t eat the flowers! Well, you can … but I wouldn’t – there is not much nourishment there. 

There are many people living around us today who are eager to take ‘a bite’ out of us, just to see what our fruit will taste like, how we will react. Think about it. Some clown cuts in front of you and your precious kids in your car, in traffic, and you have to slam on the brakes and tell the kids to hold on. What kind of reaction does that invoke in us? Do we say unprintable things and curse the idiot who did it? Or do we bless the young man – let’s be fair, it is often a young man with little sense, who thinks he is a racing car driver … So. Do we bless him with wisdom and common sense so he won’t kill himself or someone else? Hmmm. Probably not.

Moo-ving on … Some pretty young thing pushes in front of us in the coffee shop and turns and gives us a dazzling smile and she says; “you don’t mind do you? I’m in an awful rush.” And you stand there, smile back and say .. “of course not.” Meanwhile you are thinking: ‘You are not the only one with a busy day lovey!’ Or other things I will not mention… 🤬 And there we are, wearing a fake pasted-on smile. That’s not real fruit by the way, its wish-fruit. We just made plastic fruit. That stuff falls off the minute you shake the tree and it tastes like plastic be-ca-use … it’s … plastic!

The point is – fruit can’t be faked. It’s either real or it isn’t. And the faked stuff is inedible. So what conclusion can we come to? We need to ask ourselves what actually comes out when I am under pressure? That is what is actually INSIDE my tree – it seems I lost my connection to the sap that flows from Jesus along the vine. Now, I can’t blame you for that, because no matter whatever is inside me, the truth is I let it stay until it got good and rotten and expressive. 

To bear good fruit we need to value the Holy Spirit and His ways and, as I said a minute ago, we can’t manufacture good fruit. Farmers grow fruit, and manufacturers churn out the plastic stuff! That’s why the bible says: “The fruit of the SPIRIT is …’ It’s His fruit in me, not mine. It is also what Jesus meant when He talked about abiding in the vine. Here’s the cruncher … without the sap of the Holy Spirit flowing through us, we can’t manufacture fruit at all … Our pretend, isn’t worth a hill of beans, and flowers ain’t fruit! 

We gotta go to the tree, our own tree, and see what is stopping us from letting the sap of the Holy Spirit flow through us. We need to ask ourselves questions. What are we hanging onto that grieves the Holy Spirit? It doesn’t have to be too much TV etc. it could just be a lousy attitude that we won’t let go of! Honest repentance starts the fruit growing again, and watering our lives with the knowledge of His unconditional love for us, plus feeding ourselves on the bible by doing what it says – all that grows fruit. Christianity is not a club, it’s a lifestyle, and fruit takes time to grow. Let’s get rid of any blockages to fruitfulness with His help — be-cau-se… …flowers ain’t fruit, they are simply po-ten-tial.  Bye.👋   

P 2528 Nothing is permanent – even you!

/ DVH

I saw the above photo on a missionary friend’s site recently and it resounded in my heart immediately.  It seems to me that there really is a whole lotta shaking goin’ on — in the Body of Christ — as well as in this world around us.  

The bible says this in Hebrews 12:27: “So don’t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn’t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—He’s told us this quite plainly—He’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.”

I need to make it clear that I am not here to discuss ‘the end times.’ The Lord has told me that is none of my business and when He tells me “None of your business!”… I listen. I don’t want to waste whatever time I have chasing stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with me. But I do want to say this, we ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ about wars, earthquakes, volcanos, and tsunamis but what we really ought to pay attention to … is what happens … when Almighty God speaks!

I mean, did you get what that scripture in Hebrews? It says His voice at one time shook the earth to its foundations … but the next time … !!! … He is also going to rock the heavenlies! The God of heaven and earth is going to shake this world out of its complacency and chaos, and … we don’t know when!  While we are here, we still have a promise to keep: “Your new life for my old one Lord.” …’The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God Who died for me.”(Galatians 2:20)

Lately, the thing I have noticed is this, the current earthly disastrous events are often somewhere else. So most of us  are viewing that kind of upheaval and chaos from a distance. But there will come a day when nobody can stand off and wonder what that is like, because it will be our house that is shaking! Now that will really touch us where we are at! It is one thing to have the world shake 10,000 kms away and entirely another to have it shake at your house.

All I feel about the difficult times ahead is that the Lord is deeply grieved about every single one of the people who have already perished, and the ones who will perish, without any knowledge of Him, in the future. Most of them have never ever been told that Jesus loves them and died for their sins. And, this is happening on OUR watch. Now there’s a sobering thought. How can we continue on in our comfortable lives without caring for those among us who have no idea about what could be just around the corner? 

I know we’ve kind of relegated this stuff into “some-day land” … but for the people who have died recently – in the past week, month, or year;  without anyone caring about their eternal destiny — it mattered! We can be so busy making sure we are “safe” and our families are “safe” – we forget our main directive is to GO and tell others! We are all called to be witnesses of what God has done in and through our lives. 

Instead we collect verses that comfort us, like some people collect postage stamps, and we vaguely wonder why we are not growing. Maybe it is because we’ve missed the fact that our primary mission is not about being healed or trained … it’s about going!! Our primary aim is to love the Lord with all of us, plus love and care for the well-being of others, whether they are friends or enemies. It is way too easy to see the current road statistics and think: “Whew! Not my family.”

Jesus Christ spent His entire ministry ministering to the sorrowing, sick, suffering and ignorant – how can we dare to do any less than He did? Let’s remember, that despite our personal inadequacies …WE are the cavalry! Just like that remnant army that Gideon led, I believe the day is coming when the Holy Spirit will lead a remnant army who are empowered by Him, to usher in the greatest revival this world has ever seen.

Right now, we need to start telling the people around us what the Lord has done in our own lives … and remember, the results are always up to Him. The poor and the downtrodden are currently living in this world without God’s demonstrated love, mercy or grace … because His love inside us has not moved our butts to take a risk, and go and visit them!  Jesus took the greatest risk of all – HE TRUSTED US.

There is no point waiting until our kids are raised and our house is paid off to OBEY. None of us have a guaranteed hold over tomorrow, because nothing is permanent. Our enemy is running rampant, killing people off one way or another. Saints, we are looking inward instead of outward. Jesus Christ is WITH US … LET’S GO!👋

Mark 16:15: “He (Jesus) said to them, “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

Matthew 28:19&20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

P 2499 Our yes works in every circumstance.

/ DVH

Fear is one of those ghastly things that tries to batter many of us daily into submission. It starts out for me, by painting pictures of disaster in my mind, and hammers at me from every corner that God does not care. Then it tells me that He is not going to help me because I don’t deserve His help. All of that is a lie! 

God is love! We all need to have complete confidence, no matter how things look, that our GOD IS also GOOD. Plus – it also goes without saying that He is not the author of fear. However, any one of us would be foolish if we underestimated our enemy. satan knows our weaknesses and he plays on them. The safest place to fight that battle is to live this life yielded to Jesus … no matter what else is going on. When we yield to Him we are saying ‘yes.’

The Lord wants to turn those weaknesses of ours into strengths, so this is how we fight our battles … we refuse to entertain the things our enemy insists will be an outcome of some situation or other, and start to concentrate on what the Lord Himself says about Who He is, and what He says about us – IN THE BOOK. The bible is the most fantastic sword ever, it has His wisdom in it, and on it, and this book adapts and becomes appropriate in any kind of situation. 

The thing is – at the same time the Holy Spirit will also use that sword to change our mindset. Using His sword and holding fast to Him to deliver us, actually transforms our minds. It is like this: something happens and we are tempted by those circumstances to think that God does not care about us. So we ask the Holy Spirit for scripture/s, then we aim that scripture at satan – just like Jesus did in Matthew. Lastly, we insist that His word is truer than how we feel, or the things that are coming against us. 

Our King will put a sword in our hands and then that word comforts us, and it tears UP/down the enemy’s lies! We will gain trust as individuals as we see our glorious King acting on our behalf. Our minds need to be infused with the reality that nothing beats King Jesus. Our aim is not about getting some specific outcome – the real answer is no matter what happens – He’s got this. We know that He will WIN whatever happens!! He already won 2,000+ years ago! The wisest course is to surrender every bit of the trouble, and hold onto WHO HE IS.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit is using that sword to separate us away from the thinking patterns we’ve formed in our lives – the things that have convinced us that things are never ever going to change. Our Father is always waiting for our cry of help, no matter how feeble that cry might seem to us. He is always with us to deliver us. If we are not delivered on the spot, then that means one of two things. The first is He knows that by stretching your faith, it will grow.

“Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.” James 1:3-4. This stretching of our faith produces the kind of endurance that will stand in any circumstances. No athlete can run a successful race if he does not build up his stamina. We need to learn from the Holy Spirit to use the difficult things as opportunities to build up our spiritual stamina. Meanwhile, inner peace is not too shabby, thank you Lord!

To get a test-i-mony sometimes you have to go through a test! None of us can avoid growing! That is why we need to seize every single opportunity to push through how we feel, then finish off the fight with the circumstances, and our feelings, by quietly waiting to see what He will do in our behalf.  Waiting is part of the Lord’s process. It renews our strength and helps us get a different view of what is going on. 

The second thing is that these places are where we get to be like David who knew, from experience, that God was going to back Him up. We must ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ – for ourselves! … and stop just taking someone else’s word for it. Our biggest problem right now is this – in the past, this life has loomed larger than our experiences with our God’s Grace and Mercy. We’ve been babies expecting someone to pick us up and soothe us … but right here, right now we are learning to reverse this error. NOTHING IS BIGGER THAN GOD and as we yield to Him, we leave Him room to move. We want His will His way!

Sometimes we pray for deliverance from evil, but Father God is giving us an opportunity to grow, to go deeper. We need to be able to discern the times, even in our own lives. Even if we feel weak and helpless, you and I are on our way to victory!! God promises to renew our strength and … I am sooooo never going to get sick of saying this … “His strength is made PERFECT in our weakness.” WIN-WIN! 

As Christians if we stand still – we stop to fight the good fight in our head… We don’t have to run away… because our side already won. The greatest gift we can give the Lord is our availability, and satan wants to scare us out of standing in our God-given place. Let your yes to Him be continuous. 👋🏻

P 2465 Stick-to-it-ivity.

/ DVH

““Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14 MSG.

The biggest problem we will ever face, as Christians in my opinion, isn’t just the temptation to disobey, it is the temptation to give up entirely and live mediocre lives. Comfort and ease are our enemies. So is thinking we have arrived and this is as good as we will get!  Ask your family, they can tell you if you have arrived or not … they live with you. Here are two more verses to chew on … and yes, they give me indigestion too! James 1:2-3. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

2 Peter 1:5-8 “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”It is not enough to have these things, they must be growing!

Did you catch the point that our own inner attitudes are essential to help us overcome? The more we choose to obey the Holy Spirit, the more we will have these qualities added unto us! That, BTW, doesn’t mean that we can’t short-circuit the process, by being disobedient and self-indulgent. It simply means that one thing builds upon another. The thing beneath it, holds the next one up! Faith holds goodness up! Goodness holds Godly knowledge up… etc! PS w are not just meant to sort-of kind-of have these qualities – they are meant to increase as we go along.

We cannot afford to pretend this stuff doesn’t matter … that attitude will whittle away at our faith. The bible says when bad stuff happens:  count yourself/consider yourself… blessed, because this stuff is a sign that you are doing something right!  Everything changes when we stop regarding the bible as sweet sayings that are there to comfort and bless us – and instead we ingest them and regard them like they are medicine or vitamin pills. So we take them as prescribed. If we watch over our own words, they will give us a clue about what is going on inside. BTW, this isn’t censorship, it is self-awareness.

I’m not saying you have to be false about how you feel when hard things happen, these scriptures simply mean this is the way we are to look at those things. It definitely doesn’t mean paste a fake smile on your face and pretend stuff doesn’t hurt you! We are to regard these sorts of difficulties as a witness that what we are doing is right. Plus sometimes nasty scenarios tell us that the other person involved is being convicted by the way we are behaving and living. Conviction is good! It can lead to repentance, reparation and new beginnings.

The bonus buy of living the way the bible prescribes, is that we start up God’s production line on the inside of our spirits. We begin to grow Kingdom qualities. These qualities come from heaven and they hold incredible power to bring about change. Sadly, it is so much easier not to do any of this stuff at all, and short-circuit the process… OR … you can get sick of doing it and lose the prize.  That’s where stick-to-it-ivity comes in! The prize is having our automatic inside attitudes, changed. It is incredible to find that you are keeping your mouth shut when you know that’s impossible, especially if you are being provoked! It’s real, and you have no desire to chop the other person up into little pieces!  

Now bear with me, one more scripture – of course it is about difficulties producing some God-designed quality when we allow them to work on our characters! …”We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience.  And patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts.”  Romans 5:3-5a. Even more of the construction process!

Joy is not just a smiley face, or a really really happy attitude, joy is a God-quality. It comes from the inside out. It does not wear out, because it is in there to grow. We need to trust the Holy Spirit to produce what He said He will as we obey Him and follow His instructions. We can always ask for His help but we cannot simply pray God-qualities into our lives and then do nothing. The bible is a faith book, and obeying it, using our faith, activates growth. Plus we will need stick-to-it-ivity. Hold fast to what you are aiming at with His help, “we will win if we don’t faint.” Bye 👋🏻