God will help people in trying to live a holy life

Warren Wiersbe writes that the “same grace that redeems us also reforms our lives and makes us godly.” God is training us through the Holy Spirit to be the kind of people that bring glory to him. God is training us to be holy.
These characteristics we have been talking about for the past few weeks cannot be legislated or enforced by a set of rules. You can’t make somebody be kind or patient or loving or gentle. Likewise, no law can keep us from displaying these highly desirable qualities in our lives. The only thing that is keeping us from allowing his fruit to ripen in us is our own selfishness and sinfulness.

In his book, “Fresh Power,” Jim Cymbala writes, “While Christ’s work on the cross ... was the only way to settle the problem of guilt, sin and condemnation; the coming of the promised Holy Spirit was God’s way of changing human beings from the inside out. The law given to Moses had failed on this very point. It was in itself holy and just, but the problem was the sinful nature within people. Now the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of believers would conquer the age-old dilemma of ‘I want to be different but can’t. I know what’s wrong, but I keep doing it anyway.’ This empowerment by the Spirit would be the dynamic source throughout time for all who live and labor for Jesus Christ.”

God wants to empower us to live a holy life on a daily basis. I want to encourage you to be open to the Spirit’s promptings each day that you live. Allow God, through the power of his Spirit, to perfect his work in you — the process of refining us into the image of Jesus Christ, which happens to be God’s goal for all of us.

Philip Keller in his book “A Gardener Looks At The Fruit of the Spirit” says that self-control in the biblical sense “means my ‘self,’ my whole person, my whole being, body soul and spirit come under the control of Christ. It means that I am an individual governed by God. My entire life, every aspect of it — whether spiritual, moral or physical — has become subject to the sovereignty of God’s Spirit. ‘I am a man under authority.’ The running of my affairs, my attitudes, my actions is a right that has been relinquished and turned over to God’s Gracious Spirit.
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You can e-mail Pastor Steve Greene at sgreene@seymournaz.org.