"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22)
The other day, I was perusing one of those social sites and landed on the profile of a young man I once knew from our church in Georgia. He's now a college graduate, setting foot outside the confines of school and making his way in life.
Gazing over his profile, I noticed that he had the quote, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me."
Directly below the quote was a reference to pornography. The quotes began to get worse (and much more embarrassing) the further down I read. After looking at his pictures, I began to wonder what went wrong in his life. The dichotomy between the biblical quote and the pornography quote was striking.
And then it occurred to me, so many professing Christians are not Christians at all.
Where are the fruits that are proof-positive that one has turned from sin and the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in one's heart? Where is the change?
I spent years wondering if I was indeed saved. I believed in God. I went to church every Wednesday night and every Sunday morning. But something just wasn't right. It seemed like I was two people; one who said she loved God and the other who acted and spoke as if she did not know God at all. How can that be?
I thought back to that hot, muggy day in Georgia when at 13, I made my way down to the makeshift altar at bible camp and said the Sinner's Prayer. And then it hit me; the Sinner's Prayer was the problem!
We've all heard it. Many of us have actually uttered it after a well-meaning pastor or traveling preacher spoke it for us to repeat.
It would hold for awhile, but since there was no genuine conversion, the sinner's prayer would fall further and further from our memories as we fell further and further into the very sin we were supposed to hate.
Fruits of the Spirit then would not be made manifest because the sinner is not saved. This explains why so many professing Christians are so carnal in their behavior and why they continually find themselves on the wrong side of grace.
How could I claim to be a Christian when my focus in life was on everything but God? I didn't read the bible I carried on Sunday mornings, nor did I read it while I was working with the young people at church. We were too busy trying to have fun instead of trying to lead others to Christ.
But the fruit! Where was the fruit? Was I compassionate? Did I shun gossip? (No.) Was I kind? Was I faithful? Did I practice self-control? Was I good?
I can honestly say that no, I was very clearly not who I portrayed myself to be and when I was confronted by a holy and just God, I found out very quickly that I was nowhere near being saved. In fact, I was on the wide road and approaching the wide gate.
Confronted by my sin, I forgot the sinner's prayer and instead, found myself face down on the floor and crying out to God to save me. I wanted to be saved from my sin, saved from hell, saved from me.
Repenting suddenly made sense. Suddenly understanding why Jesus died on the cross brought a fresh round of guilt and heartbreak.
I knew it was supposed to be me up there.
I remember that day. I'll always remember the day I was truly born again.
That's the day the worthless Sinner's Prayer died and when I began to notice the blooming flowers of joy, peace and kindness and could not wait to taste the delicious fruit they would become.
©Tara Floyd (Peachy)
The other day, I was perusing one of those social sites and landed on the profile of a young man I once knew from our church in Georgia. He's now a college graduate, setting foot outside the confines of school and making his way in life.
Gazing over his profile, I noticed that he had the quote, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me."
Directly below the quote was a reference to pornography. The quotes began to get worse (and much more embarrassing) the further down I read. After looking at his pictures, I began to wonder what went wrong in his life. The dichotomy between the biblical quote and the pornography quote was striking.
And then it occurred to me, so many professing Christians are not Christians at all.
Where are the fruits that are proof-positive that one has turned from sin and the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in one's heart? Where is the change?
I spent years wondering if I was indeed saved. I believed in God. I went to church every Wednesday night and every Sunday morning. But something just wasn't right. It seemed like I was two people; one who said she loved God and the other who acted and spoke as if she did not know God at all. How can that be?
I thought back to that hot, muggy day in Georgia when at 13, I made my way down to the makeshift altar at bible camp and said the Sinner's Prayer. And then it hit me; the Sinner's Prayer was the problem!
We've all heard it. Many of us have actually uttered it after a well-meaning pastor or traveling preacher spoke it for us to repeat.
It would hold for awhile, but since there was no genuine conversion, the sinner's prayer would fall further and further from our memories as we fell further and further into the very sin we were supposed to hate.
Fruits of the Spirit then would not be made manifest because the sinner is not saved. This explains why so many professing Christians are so carnal in their behavior and why they continually find themselves on the wrong side of grace.
How could I claim to be a Christian when my focus in life was on everything but God? I didn't read the bible I carried on Sunday mornings, nor did I read it while I was working with the young people at church. We were too busy trying to have fun instead of trying to lead others to Christ.
But the fruit! Where was the fruit? Was I compassionate? Did I shun gossip? (No.) Was I kind? Was I faithful? Did I practice self-control? Was I good?
I can honestly say that no, I was very clearly not who I portrayed myself to be and when I was confronted by a holy and just God, I found out very quickly that I was nowhere near being saved. In fact, I was on the wide road and approaching the wide gate.
Confronted by my sin, I forgot the sinner's prayer and instead, found myself face down on the floor and crying out to God to save me. I wanted to be saved from my sin, saved from hell, saved from me.
Repenting suddenly made sense. Suddenly understanding why Jesus died on the cross brought a fresh round of guilt and heartbreak.
I knew it was supposed to be me up there.
I remember that day. I'll always remember the day I was truly born again.
That's the day the worthless Sinner's Prayer died and when I began to notice the blooming flowers of joy, peace and kindness and could not wait to taste the delicious fruit they would become.
©Tara Floyd (Peachy)
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