The Plumbline

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3) We might not 'feel' like we have what it takes to live godly lives, make right choices, and be at peace with ourselves, much less others. Those feelings can be overwhelming at times, almost stifling any forward movement we desire to make in our spiritual lives. Truth be told, we sometimes need to engage in a little 'self-talk' to tell our feelings to take a hike! If we relied upon how we 'felt' everyday, many of us would never make it out of bed! God has given us everything - not just some of the stuff, but all of whatever it is we need in order to live godly lives. If we can just remind ourselves of this whenever we feel like we cannot put one foot in front of the other, feeling like every decision to live according to his principles is

Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself. (Thomas a Kempis) We are not alone in this challenge to overcome things within ourselves that we don't like, we know others don't like, and we are darn tootin sure God isn't very pleased with either. Since the beginning of man's walk on this earth, there have been times when bad decisions led down bad paths, and those paths led to even worse outcomes. In the end, mankind has found themselves 'trying' to clean up the mess they have made of their lives, but coming up woefully short. As a believer in Christ Jesus, we don't have to 'try' any longer. We can begin to see real and lasting change because we are no longer controlled by the pull of those bad choices - we have been given the Holy Spirit within to help us when our decisions are not going to lead to good outcomes. But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, ki