July 10, 2024
Praying Friends,
Many people talk and many people walk. Some people just talk and don’t walk, while others talk and walk the walk. Are you confused?
“To walk the walk,” is an informal way of saying that a person's actions match their talk. My question is this: Does your behavior/walk coincide with what you profess with your mouth?
We profess to be people of faith. We profess to be people of love. We profess to be people of purity.
We profess to be people of integrity. We profess to be people governed by the Bible. We profess that God is our Father.
These are things we say with our mouths, but does our behavior align with these professions?
How does God desire us to walk? As Paul prayed for the Colossian believers, he said, “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Colossians 1:10-12 ESV).
God desires that our walk be pleasing to the Lord. Delighting the heart of God is a goal worth pursuing. As our hearts and lives are positioned more closely with our God, the more intimate the relationship becomes. Walking worthy of the Lord is a life lived with His desires and values always before us.
The clearer we perceive His heart the clearer our decisions become.
God desires that our walk be fruitful. Like a fruit tree, our lives produce the fruit consistent with the nature of the life of the source. An apple tree produces apples, an orange tree produces oranges, and so on. Because we have the nature of God, the fruit of the Spirit should be the evident fruit we produce.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
If our lives produce anger, wrath, malice, jealousy, hatred, and selfishness, this is a good indication that we are not drawing from the fountain source of the Holy Spirit.
God desires that our walk be one of abundance. The believer's life is not stagnant and boring. It is a life of increase in the knowledge of God. The more we grow in our understanding of who God is and His ways, the more we will long after Him.
His character, His life, His words, and His mighty works are an infinite supply that will satisfy us in the deepest parts.
God desires that our walk be empowered by divine strength. There is a dependence upon God that is necessary to meet the challenges of life. If we are going to endure the trials with joy, we will need God’s help to do so.
God desires that our walk be filled with thankfulness. God has been good and has loaded us with benefits both temporal and spiritual. Paul lists four spiritual blessings (qualified, delivered, transferred, and redeemed) that we will consider in the weeks to come.
Gratitude will encourage others and will enhance our effectiveness in sharing the good news of Jesus.
Thank you for praying for our prodigals and for revival.
Love in Christ,
Bryan and Rachel
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