Chapter 22
HIS ENERGY FOR YOUR FRUITFULNESS
To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
COLOSSIANS 1:29 NIV
207 Too Soon to Quit
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).
The track and field throwers I coach frequently become frustrated. I tell them it’s always too soon to quit.
A ninth grader was disheartened in one practice in the fall of 2007. She stopped throwing for the day. She couldn’t take any more frustration.
She didn’t give up, however. She kept on working at it. Her perseverance produced five Pennsylvania track and field state championship medals by graduation.
Your perceived lack of spiritual growth can frustrate you. You seem to wrestle with the same besetting sins. You see little spiritual fruit. You wish for dozens of bunches of beautiful grapes. You see only a couple of wrinkled raisins! You must persevere.
Those with average ability who persevere eventually overcome. They often accomplish more than those with greater abilities who easily give up.
The white oak's average life span of three hundred years begins with an acorn. It germinates and holds its ground.
In about twenty years it begins producing acorns. At eighty the tree produces thousands of acorns. It’s always too soon to quit!
When have you given up on something that you now regret? When did you persevere even though the going was tough? Read Hebrews 3.
208 Putting up with Weird People
People’s weirdness gets on your nerves. Your weirdness gets on theirs. We’re all weird—just in different places!
I talk to and sometimes get mad at things that aren’t “cooperating.” That’s just the iceberg tip of my weirdness.
You have your collection of odd habits, don’t you? Forbearance is patiently bearing with others’ oddness with the right attitude.
Agitated silence isn’t forbearance. I’m better at not speaking a critical word than not thinking negative thoughts. Both are important.
God gets glory when sinful, weird people like you can bear with, forgive, and love sinful, odd people like me. That’s not easy. Forbearance is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23).
You’re naturally unmerciful, proud, self-centered, impatient, and quick to anger. You have a 1-millimeter fuse. You need a 1-meter one. The Holy Spirit’s power is your fuse extender (Galatians 5:22).
Putting up with others and forgiving them are related. “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13 NIV).
Christ’s person and work are the basis for both forgiving and forbearing. You forgive and bear with others because Christ forgives and bears with you.
You’re chosen, holy, and loved by God (Colossians 3:12). As a royal child, you must treat others better than they deserve because God treats you better than you deserve.
The Holy Spirit in you enables you to do so as you surrender to His will and ways. It’s a life-long process.
God uses relationships to make you more like Jesus. You can’t put up with weird people on your own.
But the Holy Spirit’s power can make it happen. You trust Him to do what you can’t.
Weirdness is like smelly garbage in relationships. It’s natural to magnify the smell of others’ weirdness. It’s easy to turn away from the one generating it.
You don’t want them doing that to you, do you? God gets glory when sinful, weird people like you can put up with, forgive, and love odd believers like me through His enabling power.
How well do you patiently tolerate others’ oddness without agitated silence? What’s the next step? Read Hebrews 4.
209 Are You Impatient?
Your weird habits don’t seem odd to you. But they get on others’ nerves.
I’m more patient with people than with things. At times I imagine inanimate objects are out to get me. That’s industrial strength oddness!
After you laugh at my weirdness, consider your own. Do you save things you’ll never need? Do you talk to pets like they’re people?
Do irrational fears limit you? Do you talk to yourself? The weird gene reveals itself in thousands of ways!
Forbearance is humbly and compassionately putting up with others’ weird ways. “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).
It’s often hard to separate sin and weirdness. Because you’re a sinner, you sin. That requires forgiveness in relationships. God gets the glory when weird and sinful people can love one another.
Christ’s person and work are the basis for forgiving and forbearing. How you live should flow from being chosen, holy, and loved by God (Colossians 3:12).
A royal son or daughter should live like one. That’s challenging. You’re naturally unmerciful, proud, self-centered, impatient, and quick to anger.
Patience is behind forbearance and forgiveness. Behind patience lies compassion and humility. Patience trickles and then gushes from an increasingly compassionate and humble heart.
Being chosen, holy, and loved by God should lengthen your anger fuse. You’ve received God’s undeserved favor. You must pass it on to others.
Forbearing means putting up with one another. Others’ odd traits irritate you like a stone in your shoe. But you don’t want your weirdness and sins held against you.
“Love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 NIV). Love always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7–8 NIV).
Forbearance means treating others better than they deserve. That’s because God treats you better than you deserve.
How do you do it? You pass on to others the grace you receive from God. The Spirit of God in you treats others through you as He treats you.
That’s better than either you or they deserve. You have to submit and trust Him to work through you.
The fruit of the Spirit is … forbearance (Galatians 5:22). When you yield to the Spirit’s will and ways, forbearance mysteriously grows out of the soil of your impatience.
Why are you obligated to forgive others and put up with their irritating ways? Read Hebrews 5.
210 The Impressive Power of Kindness
I remember reciting the Scout Law at every Boy Scout meeting. “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”
Suppose the Scout Law was the only law of the land. Everyone follows it consistently. The USA would be a much safer and more united place! Being consistently kind could revolutionize your life.
Kindness is choosing to do what benefits others even if it costs you time, money, or energy. As it turns out, scientists have conclusively proven that being kind aids those you help and improves your life.
Kind actions release hormones in your body. They make you feel good. They lower your blood pressure.
Intentional kindness expands and strengthens healthy relationships with others. That’s correlated with living longer and reducing your stress, depression, anxiety, and internal inflammation.1
These personal benefits of kindness demonstrate something. You’re created to be kind. You function best when you are.
Kindness lubricates interpersonal relationships. It greases your own physical, emotional, and psychological gears.
You’re created in God’s image. That includes kindness. Being kind to your enemies shows you’re a child of God.
He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. He gives them rain from heaven and crops to feed them and give them joy (Luke 6:35, Acts 4:17).
Applying that principle would transform our political climate and national division! Kindness starts with you but the good news is that it’s communicable. Those who witness or receive kindness often pass it on to others.
God intends that His kindness will lead you to center your life on Him (Romans 2:4). You are to be like Him by being kind to others (1 Corinthians 13:4, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:12). That’s best accomplished by letting God’s Spirit be kind to others through you (Galatians 5:22).
How will focusing on being kind today benefit both you and others?
Read Hebrews 6.
211 Kindness at Home
My father went out to dinner with a friend. When they finished eating, he went to pay the bill. He discovered a stranger had already taken care of it.
Such gracious demonstrations get your attention because you’re often not kind to others, especially your family. You frequently shift out of kindness gear when you walk in your front door.
Those studying the basics of social distancing during a pandemic could learn from a couple that has been married for more than seven years!
Stress often brings unkindness to the surface. When life’s pressures squeeze you like a tube of toothpaste, your frustrations surface. You lash out at others.
When you’re unkind, you’re forgetting God’s kindness to you. “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:4–5 NIV).
Projecting a superior attitude is never appropriate when you’re dispensing kindness. Only the garment of humility perfectly fits kindness distributors.
They’re pock-marked with failures. There’s no room for a better-than-you attitude!
The New Testament word for kindness describes gentleness, goodness, uprightness, generosity, and graciousness.
God is kind (Titus 3:4). It’s a characteristic of true love (1 Corinthians 13:4). Like love, kindness isn’t based on the giver’s character, not the recipient’s worthiness.
God’s kindness should spur you on to be kind to others, especially other believers. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32 NIV).
God’s purpose is that rivers of kindness will flow from you fed by the inexhaustible aquifers of His kindness to you. The Holy Spirit empowers the whole venture (Galatians 5:22).
Be a sparkling mountain stream of kindness as a way of life. Don’t settle for being a faucet of kindness turned off or on at will! Christianity that works, works at home.
Why is being kind at home more of a challenge than being kind in other settings? Read Hebrews 7.
212 The Kind Hands People
My wife’s hands are five-star kindness dispensers! I’ll return to that shortly.
I went to the supermarket to buy a chicken. I was adding it to the vegetable soup I was making. Ahead of me in the checkout line, a man was paying for his groceries.
A lady was waiting with her items out of the cart. She was ready to check out. She kindly invited me to go ahead of her.
I thanked her immediately. I thanked her again before I left. Kindness lubricates human relationships.
Treat others as you want them to treat you. In heaven, it’ll be the universal language. The Scout Handbook says, “Of all the points in the Scout Law, if the world at large experienced an overall increase in the level of kindness, it would have the most impact.”1
My wife’s hands have done tens of thousands of kind things for me and others since we first met. That’s no exaggeration.
If kindness were a fruit, no one would be allergic to it! It is, in fact, the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
God supplies it, but you must dispense it. King David asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?” (2 Samuel 9:3 NIV).
God entrusts you with the responsibility of dispensing His kindness to others. It’s a practical demonstration of His love. You push down on the hand soap dispenser to transfer a dab to your hands.
Likewise, you choose to be the Holy Spirit’s kindness dispenser. Even though your mental and physical capacities might diminish with age, you can excel at dispensing kindness as long as you live!
Be God’s kindness dispenser at least once today. Read Hebrews 8.
213 Are You a Good Person?
My second-grade report card defined B as good and A as excellent. I had at least one B+, which means, at times, I was better than good!
I even had a couple of A’s in penmanship. I suspect my teacher’s eyesight wasn’t better than good!
Biblical goodness dwells on a higher plane than the goodness of ice cream. Human goodness is unimpressive. That’s because it can’t measure up to God’s goodness standard, the life of Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament rarely mentions human goodness in a positive light. By contrast, it calls God’s goodness worthy of praise four times in Psalm 107 alone.
He’s abundant in goodness and truth (Exodus 34:6). It exalts God’s goodness and repeatedly describes it in glowing terms.
It shines gloriously like the sun. Goodness expresses how God relates to His people. He has laid up great goodness for those who fear Him (Psalm 31:19).
Goodness is choosing the right and moral good while rejecting wrong and moral evil. God actively, aggressively, and zealously does good.
He takes the initiative to help you (Romans 5:8). God’s mercy, graciousness, patience, forgiveness, and justice express His goodness.
Goodness is more than abstaining from evil. It’s knowing and doing the right thing. You display God’s goodness when you’re merciful, forgiving, gracious, just, patient, generous, and morally pure.
You show it through a compassionate heart. You demonstrate it when you relieve the suffering of all kinds of people, especially fellow believers (Galatians 6:10).
God oozes goodness. He wants you to do the same (Exodus 34:6). Your goodness flows out of life that is right with and yielded to Him.
The Holy Spirit in you produces it (Galatians 5:22–23). Virtue and helpfulness characterize it. It draws other humans to God like iron to a magnet (Matthew 5:16).
You’re a goodness magnet! You’re most useful, not on the refrigerator doors of a sanctuary seat, but on the highways and byways of life.
Intentionally demonstrate God’s goodness to others at least once today so He gets the glory. Read Hebrews 9.
214 Keeping Your Promises
In early 1915 Ernest Shackleton took a lifeboat and traveled eight hundred miles to a whaling station on South Georgia Island. He went to get help to rescue his crew marooned on uninhabited Elephant Island.
He promised his crew he’d return. They believed him. Eight months later he came back to Elephant Island. He was faithful.
Faithfulness is dependability, trustworthiness, and reliability. Truth is faithfulness’ foundation. Jesus is full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
He keeps His promises. Your reputation depends on how well you keep your promises. Moreover, if you call yourself a Christian, God’s reputation depends on it too.
Faithfulness has a hand and glove relationship with faith. Faith needs an object. The key question is, “Is the object of your faith worthy of your trust?”
Christian faith is simply acting on God’s character and promises. When God says He’ll provide, He does. When He says He’ll forgive, He does. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NIV).
When He promises He’ll never leave you (Hebrews 13:5), He doesn’t. Your eternal destiny rests on God’s faithfulness.
God is faithfulness’ gold standard. “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart” (Psalm 91:4 NIV).
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23 NIV). He’s forever trustworthy.
By contrast, human faithfulness is rarer than a four-leaf clover. Even Christians often don’t keep their promises.
The fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness (Galatians 5:22–23). Therefore, you should keep your word to others even when inconvenient, uncomfortable, difficult, or costly.
How do you up your game? Trust the Holy Spirit to produce faithfulness in you while doing your best to be faithful.
Give the Holy Spirit the driver’s seat of your life. Make keeping your promises a priority.
Why is keeping your promises important for both your and God’s reputation? Read Hebrews 10.
215 Gentleness – Not What You Think
Gentleness is strength plus courage plus restraint. It’s not a weakness. It’s not a spineless submission. It’s not putting yourself down.
No task is too low for gentle people. They’re like Olympic weightlifters who clean toilets.
They’re like a plow horse submissive to a farmer’s guidance. Their strength is under control. They’re like an elephant’s trunk which can rip branches from trees yet pick up a single blade of grass.
Gentle Christians yield to God. They’re teachable and responsive to Him. They’re humble, respectful, and polite toward others.
They’re not angry, vengeful, or self-glorying. They allow gentle and humble Jesus to live through them. They remain securely connected to Him (Matthew 11:29, John 15:5).
Staying connected to Him is vital. Plants rooted in fertile, well-watered soil produce abundant fruit. Staying connected to Jesus results in much fruit that will remain. Gentleness is among them (Galatians 5:22–23).
Allow Jesus to live His gentle life through you. Then your words and actions will bring blessing to others instead of pain.
The Apostle Paul appeals to you by the gentleness and sweet reasonableness of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:1). He tells you to restore gently those trapped in sin (Galatians 6:1). He adds that a life worthy of your calling is humble and gentle (Ephesians 4:2).
He instructs you to show humble gentleness toward everyone (Titus 3:2). Control your feelings and always be ready to help the needy.
Humble gentleness flows from the spring of wisdom (James 3:13). Be prepared to give the reason for your hope with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15–16).
Gentle believers care for and nurture others. They stay calm and don’t push people’s buttons. They build others up. They offer a listening ear when people need to talk.
How will you channel the gentleness of Jesus to others today?
Read Hebrews 11.
216 Self-Control--Regular or High-Test?
I was tested for self-control recently. I was negative! Seriously, you might consider lack of self-control your greatest character weakness.
In the United States, 40 million are addicted to tobacco. Eighteen million to alcohol. 4.2 million to marijuana. 1.8 million to painkillers. 821,000 to cocaine. 426,000 to heroin.1
Other addictions abound—hobbies, food, and gambling. Word control is a huge self-control challenge. Angry outbursts, gossip, toxic criticism, and foolish talk easily spout from uncontrolled mouths.
“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless" (James 1:26 NIV). Regular self-control often fails.
Regular self-control doesn’t depend on God. It puts the sinful nature in charge of limiting sin. That’s like putting a squirrel in charge of your bird feeder.
Regular self-control is a limited resource. Some start with a small cup of patience for the day. Others with about four drops!
The more you use patience, the less you have left. When it’s gone, so is your self-control!
God has a superior self-control strategy. It seems ironic. Allowing the Holy Spirit to control you produces high-test self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).
High-test self-control can’t co-exist with passion, pleasure, or pride controlling you. High-test self-control, like love, is a gift from God. Like the gift of athletic ability, you must expend effort to develop it. Paul disciplined and controlled his body (1 Corinthians 9:27). You give your all, but high-test self-control is more than self-effort.
Self-control implies an internal battle. An all-dessert diet sounds attractive. But you must deny or control your desires for your well-being.
High-test self-control is more about saying yes to God’s control than saying no to the particular temptation you face. You experience and exercise high-test self-control by faith. It’s trusting Christ to do in and through you what you could never do by willpower alone.
What’s supernatural about high-test self-control? What is your part?
Read Hebrews 12.