A friend of mine e-mailed me this quote today from Winkey Pratney:
"Meekness is basically a yielded will towards God. It is the key response of man
to the claims of Christ. When we truly surrender to God, our lives should show
the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our human response to God's shared love, joy and
peace will be marked by faith, meekness and self-control. God never used a man until his life showed development on these three human responses. They are the foundations of human spiritual development in Christ...This determines the extent of our faith and self-control; the more our wills are yielded, the
greater our faith and discipline. These three responses combine with love, joy
and peace to give Christian actions in reply to the three basic areas of human
rebellion against God and His people."
When you evaluate the Christian walk, it all boils down to yielding.
Justification
(The act of Regeneration and God declaring us blameless in His sight, because His son Jesus bore all our sin on the cross at Calvary) This in and of itself is an act of yielding to the Holy Spirit. Without the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we would continue on in our sin, without giving a second thought as to the wretch that we are without Christ and the need of forgiveness for our sins.
Sanctification
(The act of progressively making us more into the image of Christ every day that we live) This in and of itself is also an act of yielding to the Holy Spirit. Without yielding to the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, then our flesh takes over and the pride of life rears its ugly head. I don't know about you, but when this happens I can be a pretty prideful individual that is more concerned about what is best for satisfying Greg Jacobs' needs, then the needs of others.
So how do we put off selfish ambition and pride? First, you must surrender your life to Jesus Christ. You must confess your sin and know that He is faithful and just to forgive you of all of your sins (Past, Present, and Future). There is nothing that you can ever do to earn your salvation and freedom in Christ. He freely gives us freedom from the grip of sin and death. Because of this I have Peace in my life that goes beyond understanding. If you are already a Believer in Christ, then you must walk with him daily. This is easier on some days than others. However, consistency is the key. It is usually the people that tell you that it is not about the amount of time that you spend in devotion with God, but the quality of time, that are the shallow people that never grow roots. I couldn't disagree more with this notion that the world puts out. The more time that I spend on my knees in prayer, and the more time that I dedicate to knowing Him more through reading the Bible, the more He speaks to me, and I build a relationship with Him. It is kind of like just having a Facebook friend. If all you do is read each other's post and occasionally private message each other, you will never get to know that person. However, if you spend time at lunch with that person, and doing activities of like kind, then you will develop a relationship with that person. The misnomer is that our relationship with Jesus is like what I referred to as a "Facebook Only Friend." They think that the extent of Bible reading is just checking out a "post" sporadically in the Bible, and on certain occasions (mainly in times of crisis) they will utter a prayer to God. My friends, Jesus Christ is ALIVE. I have a personal relationship with Him, and you can to. He is not some religion or ritual that I practice, but rather what I Live for.
So how can we establish who has a relationship with Christ, and who does not? Galatians 5:22-26 says it best:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."
Have you yielded to Jesus Christ and accepted His free gift of Salvation? If not, I would love to introduce you to Him (Please send me a message through this Blog). If you have yielded to Jesus Christ, are you continuing to yield daily and get out of the way, so as to let Him have control of your life? You see if we do not STOP & YiIELD the right-of-way in our lives, then the end result promises to be disastrous.