Sinful Nature vs Holy Spirit

Today's sermon was great thus I thought of writing down here. Ps. Jonathan thought us how to bear Fruit of the Spirit.

We are all human and the sinful nature is always there. It is always there to catch us and bring us down whereas the holy spirit would be there to bring us up again after the fall. The most important thing of the fall is what happens after that and not before that. We just have to make sure everytime we fall, we know how to get back up. That doesn't rely on our strength but on Jesus's strength through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is really crucial to be able to feed the Spirit instead of other things.

The one and only way to feed our Spirit is by having daily time with God or in other words Devotion. Psalm 1 tells us that.

Plasm 1: 2 - But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.(NIV)

There are 7 ways of doing this :-
a) Pattern- Look at God's pattern through Jesus. The whole Bible is the pattern of God shown in the characteristic of Jesus Christ in the New Testament
b) Prioritize - Let our time with Jesus be our priority. Its like keeping the appointment so to do things together with God
c) Prepare - God speak to us and so be prepared for that. Write a journal to help us remind ourselves that God constantly answer us (1 Timothy 4:8)
d) Place - Choose a quiet place to come beefore God. Dont let anything rob that or distract you (Matthew 6:6)
e) Pray - Be intentional and proactive knowing that God does answer our prayers.
f) Persist - In doing God's will eventhough it sometimes might be difficult.
g) Person - We ourself should hold accountable or even as partners.

Devotions should be a lifestyle.

Forgive

'Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with eaach other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.' Colossians 3:12-14 (NIV).

I guess it is part of human nature to hang onto something so tightly that sometimes we don't realise that we would be so much more relieved and at peace once we let go. Often we would say it is difficult to forgive him/her . Even if we do, we might not treat her the same way ever again. The relationship that we once share is shattered. I don't know if you have went through that phase but I can honestly tell you I do. We are so conformed into the earthly matter to say or even think of that. How can we say that when we are continuously forgiven by God? How can we say that when everytime we ask for forgiveness, we think we are even again and is pure again in God's eyes? How can we say that when we ask favors from God after a repentance prayer?

The answer is we cannot. Everytime we ask for forgiveness, the Lord forgives us. Everytime we pray, God listens to us no matter how many time we have fallen short of His glory. Everytime we repent, God bless us.

So why can't we do the same as what the Lord God has done for us? We are all His people and we ought to treat everyone the same. When they ask for forgiveness, shouldn't we just forgive them and take them back again? When we love God, the love will also outflow from within us and that would help us to forgive the other party no matter what he/she has done. Atleast for one thing for sure, what they have done will not be as bad as what we have done to cost Jesus's life on the cross. If we are forgiven for that, nothing in this world that we should/can say we cannot forgive.

It is our ego that we are not willing to forgive. It is not about the severity of their wrong doings.