What makes a person feel good? What makes him feel bad? If a man appears clean before his boss & his boss trusts him with the company & it's shares, the man feels happy & proud that he is being trusted although behind the boss's back, he mishandles the company's shares & misuses the company's assets. Since the boss does not know about it the boss thinks he is good & this man too thinks he is good in the eyes of his boss.
Once the boss finds out that he has been cheating & using the company's assets without his knowledge & confronts this two timer, this man feels terrible. He feels bad & he apologizes to his boss.
What makes him feel bad? Was he convicted of his wrong doing? Was he repentant that he did something wrong & did he resolve never to do it again? No, in actual fact the reason he appears to be sorrowful is because the boss found out, because while the boss was unaware that he was cheating he felt good although he himself knew that he was doing something wrong. He only felt bad when the boss found out. Therefore that is not real repentance.
There are some our there, whose hearts are so hardened that they behave as if they have no concience. They continue to do what they like & want to do, despite the consequences of their actions. If a man lives like this, he has to be truly afraid of the eternal consequences he would face after his earthly life.
Yet again there are those self righteous ones who think that they are doing it all right. They go around telling others what they are doing wrong without examining their own thoughts, words & actions. To these people, all Jesus has to say is, "Remove the log from you own eye first!" If a man lives this way, he has to check himself, repent for modelling the wrong behavior to others & begin to walk with Christ before he guides others.
People in authority have alot to answer God for. They have to model after Christ, be humble, be aware that those under them are watching them & lead those under their authority with love, forgiveness, gentleness, patience, firmness & a non-judgemental attitude. They have to remember that they can only guide but that it is the Holy Spirit Who convicts each heart & brings it to repentance. Every man in authority has a duty to pray unceasingly for every subordinate of his.
Jesus says, "Do not judge, for you will be judged with the same measure with which you judge others!" Wow, that is a pretty hard saying isn't it? Well every man must remember that he is fallible & know the difference between correcting to lead someone to Christ & correcting to judge & condemn. When the difference is clearly demarked he will be able to guide others gently to Christ, with unconditional love, unwavering willingness & without prejudice. To repent for one's own mistakes & to lead others into true repentance is not an easy process. As I mentioned in my earlier paragraph, it is only by the Holy Spirit that one can be truly convicted & be brought to repentance. Therefore every Spirit filled Christian must pray for all those around them daily.
Real repentance is when one is sincerely sorry for one's wrongs & resolves before God never to do it again. He must be really, really sorry for hurting an all loving God, invite the Holy Spirit in & ask Him to convict him of every wrong & change him from within.Only when he is sincerely sorry & surrenders himself to the leading of the Spirit of God will he have a change of heart & a change of character. Only then will he be able to walk in the steps of Christ.
Our character is tested in many ways from our birth. Someone who wants to be a doctor will have to sit for the MBBS exam. One who wants to become a lawyer must sit for the LLB exam but one who needs to know how to operate a crane need only to sit for a written and practical test to operate it. One who is needed to be a domestic helper need only to pass the practical test of housekeeping & cleanliness & a written test of simple coversational English. Likewise when an individual is chosen by God to work for Him by touching the lives of those around him in the world, to bring God's kingdom to the people, he will be put through various kinds of tests which will eventually determine his character & render him fit or unfit for the special mission which God had intended him for.
Every person has to go through these tests in his live. The result is entirely dependant upon his relationship with God and the measure with which he has surrendered his life & desires to his Creator. One cannot fake it cause it will show in his life.
An orange tree cannot say that it is an apple tree because when the fruit comes out all will know that it is an orange tree. Jesus says that by our fruit all will know whom we belong to, God or the devil.
So in these end days, let us not harden our hearts & pretend that we are OK. Let us not be self righteous & judgemental & condemn people to hell. Let us not be passive and live worldly promiscuous lives, but truly repent. Repent, not because someone has found out about our wrongdoings but because we have not acted rightly before a righteous God; because we have hurt Him so badly, Him Who gave His life for us so that we would be saved.
Let us truly repent & conform our thoughts, words & actions to God's Word. Let us invite God's Spirit Who is the Holy Spirit to live in us & to change us & make us worthy vessels of the Holy Trinity & worthy to go to heaven, our eternal home.
Let us live with a renewed mind & heart so that we will have a godly character & produce the fruit of the Spirit & lead all those around us to God our Father through Christ His Son with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Come on now...let us be producers of the yummy, juicy & desirable fruit! Yes it is fruit and not fruits! One fruit of the Spirit with 9 character traits! That is why, in the image below you see only one tree which produces one fruit but with many colours which represent the different character traits.
God bless you all.
Mary Augustine.
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