Self Control..............the all too often forgot about Fruit

This is going to be short and sweet this week!

Many times I feel like people focus on the ends and not the means. I want to retire. I want to lose weight. I want a clean house. I want a successful career. I want.....I want....I want..............

But how often are people willing to do what it takes to get to what they want? I mean do you really want to eat less, eat healthier food, have to cook and eat at home more, exercise 4-6 hours a week....do you really want to lose weight?

For me I started thinking about when I was in high school and I had a list of things that I didn't do that defined my "Christianity." I didn't drink, I didn't smoke cigarettes, I didn't cuss (too often), I didn't.................hmm wait a minute, I didn't pray that much, I didn't share Christ's love that much. I didn't do a lot of things. But there was this one thing, this one tiny thing I Kept in my closet, all to myself, and I didn't want anyone else to know. What my girlfriend and I did behind closed doors, that was my best kept secret. No one could find out I was struggling with giving into temptation, they might think I was a bad "Christian."

As an adult I look back and it wasn't about what I did or didn't do with my girlfriend in high school. One could say, well when I get married I can do the same things and then it will be okay so I will be okay. But that's not true. What I was doing in high school was about self-control, not about premarital sex. Self-control? Yeah. Think about it. How do I stay healthy? I have to have self-control to eat less. How do I stay faithful in my marriage? I have to have self-control to not lust. How do I become a good steward of my finances? I have to have self-control in my consumption.

I was fooled into thinking it was about sex. But it wasn't. It was and is about self-control. Getting married didn't give me self-control. Don't lie to yourself and think that it is about what you do and don't do. What it is about is your fruit. Is the way you live your life fruitful? Matthew 12:33...........“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.

What kind of fruit do you have hanging from your limbs?

Mustard Seed..............faith indeed

How many of you have ever shared with someone the fact that you had an illness or a difficult circumstance and their response was "I will pray for you?" On Wednesday, of this week, I was inspired to write this week's blog about the subject of praying for healing. On Friday, of this week, I was informed by a dear friend of mine that his mother was diagnosed with Cancer. Coincidence? Possibly, but I doubt it :)

Let me go no farther and be completely transparent with everyone. Up until very recent, (like this year) when I prayed for someone who had an illness my prayer could be summed up like this: "Father God, you are in control, please give the person comfort and understanding and also comfort the family and friends close to this person, your will be done." Meanwhile, I never prayed for a miracle to take place or a healing, I accepted the fact that many people get sick and many people pray and many people are never healed. I never questioned why healing would be absent for some.

Recently I had a conversation with an accountability partner who is also a dear friend, who worships at a different house of God than I do, and the topic of healing came up because I have a family member who is stricken with severe mental disease and I told my friend that I didn't expect this relative to be healed. My friend shared some bible verses and some perspective that motivated me to research this "healing" thing in the bible. I wondered what was different in the 1st Century, compared to this century, that caused so many miracles of sickness-healing to take place. Was it the fact that the son of God was actually amongst us? Was it the fact that people needed lots of evidence of power and divine healing to believe in the son of God? I don't claim to be qualified to know the answer to my questions, but in research I did find some truths to healing.

Here are two truths what we do know about the 1st century healing:
1. People usually had to do something to be healed. (They Moved, took action)
2. These people that were healed had unbelievable faith.

Here are a few examples of healing where the 2 truths are evident.
1. The Centurion says to Jesus "but just say the word and my servant will be healed." (Matt 8:5-13)
2. The woman simply touched Jesus' cloak because she thought "If I just touch his clothes I will be healed." (Mark 5:25-34)

Consistently throughout the gospels Jesus has taught us that it is by our faith that we are healed. (Mark 10:52, Acts 14:9 just to name a few other places)

To culminate the subject of Faith, my Life Group has been going over the book of Matthew and we came to chapter 17 verse 20 and God spoke to me and said "you don't see healing because you don't have faith."

Jesus said: "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will be moved. Nothing will be impossible for you.

So I am back here to the 21st century and ask myself: "Are we all with such little faith that we are missing the miracles?"

I lied to myself for a long, long time (my entire life) and told myself I had faith. What I have realized is that I had a belief, but lacked faith.

If God heard a guy named Jabez and granted his request then maybe God will answer our requests! (1 Chron 4:10)

Peter walked on water during a moment of faith (he lost his faith and he sunk)
People were healed because of their faith.

But we have responsibility. We shouldn't live carelessly and then ask God to help us out. Why do fat and out of shape men always pray to be free from injury when they are about to play slow pitch softball? Everyone knows that fat and out of shape men pull hamstrings when they try to be something they are not! (18 again!)