{"id":8039,"date":"2015-08-20T06:30:28","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T10:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/?p=8039"},"modified":"2015-08-26T23:25:25","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T03:25:25","slug":"weekly-wisdom-am-i-living-by-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/2015\/08\/20\/weekly-wisdom-am-i-living-by-the-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wisdom: Am I Living by the Spirit?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/lifebythespirit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-8044\" src=\"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/lifebythespirit-1024x769.jpg\" alt=\"faith, God, Jesus Christ, Bible, Scripture, Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, Crazy Love, Francis Chan, lukewarm Christian, words of wisdom, inspiration\" width=\"560\" height=\"421\" srcset=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/lifebythespirit-1024x769.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/lifebythespirit-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I just finished reading <em><a href=\"http:\/\/crazylovebook.com\" target=\"_blank\">Crazy Love<\/a><\/em> by Francis Chan and it was altogether eye-opening, challenging and convicting. His description of a lukewarm Christian and those that are Christ-obsessed really pushed me to do an introspective examination as well as evaluate how I\u2019m living my life here on earth in light of eternity. Chan states that \u201cthe life of a lukewarm Christian wouldn\u2019t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.\u201d And if I were to be completely honest with myself, aside from not going to church every Sunday and reading the Bible on a regular basis, not much else would change if I stopped believing in God. He really pushed me to evaluate all aspects of my life, and imagine how different it would look if I surrendered each and every part to God in order to live a life that is truly obedient to the Cross.<!--more--><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>I had to assess whether the fruit of the Spirit was being manifested <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>in my attitude, in my communication with others, in my relationships <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>with loved ones as well as my interactions with strangers.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The question, of whether my life would look any different if I stopped believing, moved me to first look inwards and examine my heart and what it was producing. I asked myself whether I was living by the Spirit and producing fruit that can only come from the Spirit, which is \u201clove, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Galatians+5&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Galatians 5:22-23<\/a>). I had to assess whether the fruit of the Spirit was being manifested in my attitude, in my communication with others, in my relationships with loved ones as well as my interactions with strangers.<\/p>\n<p>Am I living by the Spirit? Do I exercise patience with my loved ones? Do I display gentleness and self-control when rebuking my children? How is my tone of voice when I communicate with others? Do I always treat others with kindness? Do I exude joy? I think these are questions that we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis and surrender every one of them to God, especially those areas in which we are weak.<\/p>\n<p>In light of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 25:31-46<\/a>, Chan challenges us to think of how our lives would change if we actually thought of every person we come into contact with as Christ. He mentions \u201cthe person driving painfully slow in front of me, the checker at the grocery store who seems more interested in chatting than ringing up my items, the member of my own family with whom I can\u2019t seem to have a conversation and not get annoyed.\u201d I seriously felt like he was speaking directly to me. Let\u2019s say these are my areas of weakness, and my attitude in these situations has been far from commendable, or even downright disobedient to the Spirit. I have a funny feeling that God always puts me behind a slow car when I\u2019m driving. Coincidence? I think not.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">&#8230;we need to live by the Spirit, <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">be led by the Spirit and <\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">keep in step with the Spirit. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It\u2019s a continuous process of daily surrender to <\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">God\u2019s will <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">and letting the Spirit lead the way in the path of righteousness.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The biggest challenge yet is\u00a0posed when Chan talks about love, of which Paul says in Galatians 5:6, \u201cThe only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.\u201d Chan reminds us that we are to love not only those that are lovable and can reciprocate our love, but we are also commanded to love our enemies and do good to them. This means that if someone hurts us, we don\u2019t retaliate as the world would, but we forgive them and love them back instead. According to Chan, lukewarm Christians love those who are easy to love, those who love them back, like family, friends, and others they connect with. But he reminds us of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+6%3A27-36&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Luke 6:32<\/a>, \u201cIf you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.\u201d God commands us to love without expecting anything in return.<\/p>\n<p>I realize that I cannot will myself to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can produce its fruit in me. As it is emphasized\u00a0in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Galatians+5&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Galatians 5<\/a>, we need to live by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit. It\u2019s a continuous process of daily surrender to God\u2019s will and letting the Spirit lead the way in the path of righteousness. It says in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Galatians+5%3A5&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Galatians 5:5<\/a> \u201cFor through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Have a blessed rest of the week!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">I will be sharing how <em>Crazy Love<\/em> has challenged my outlook on life in my next Weekly Wisdom post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloglovin.com\/blogs\/my-rose-colored-shades-10658125\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bloglovin.com\/widget\/bilder\/en\/widget.gif?id=10658125\" alt=\"Follow on Bloglovin\" width=\"150\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ig-b- ig-b-v-24\" href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/myrosecoloredshades?ref=badge\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/\/badges.instagram.com\/static\/images\/ig-badge-view-24.png\" alt=\"Instagram\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Linking up with these lovelies:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mecoffeeandjesus.com\/2015\/08\/why-i-chose-to-be-pro-choice\/\" target=\"_blank\">Words with Winter<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Word Filled Wednesday Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.w2wministries.org\/2015\/08\/will-you-abandon-it-all-for-sake-of.html\" target=\"_blank\">Word Filled Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"A Little R &amp; R Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rosilindjukic.com\/2015\/08\/a-little-r-r-wednesdays-a-linky-party-116.html\" target=\"_blank\">A Little R &amp; R<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Coffee and Conversation Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/momsmorningcoffee.com\/coffee-and-conversation-link-party-54\/\" target=\"_blank\">Coffee and Conversation<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/katherinescorner.com\/2015\/08\/19\/thursday-favorite-things-blog-hop-202\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thursday Favorite Things<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"SHINE Blog Hop\" href=\"http:\/\/thedeliberatemom.com\/shine-blog-hop-61\/\" target=\"_blank\">SHINE<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/3dlessons4life.com\/but-god\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thought Provoking Thursday<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/forfunreadinglist.blogspot.com\/2015\/08\/cozy-reading-spot-106.html\" target=\"_blank\">Cozy Reading Spot<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Fellowship Fridays Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/christianmommyblogger.com\/ff85_blessing\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fellowship Fridays<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Faith Filled Friday Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.missionalwomen.com\/faith-filled-friday-blog-link-up\/faith-filled-friday38\" target=\"_blank\">Faith Filled Friday<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Faith &amp; Fellowship\" href=\"http:\/\/www.simplemomentsstick.com\/2015\/08\/faith-and-fellowship-blog-hop_21.html\" target=\"_blank\">Faith &amp; Fellowship<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thebrowntribe.net\/2015\/08\/being-grateful-and-grace-truth\/\" target=\"_blank\">Grace &amp; Truth<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/purposefulfaith.com\/finding-god\/\" target=\"_blank\">Purposeful Faith<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just finished reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and it was altogether eye-opening, challenging and convicting. His description of a lukewarm Christian and those that are Christ-obsessed really pushed me to do an introspective examination as well as evaluate &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/2015\/08\/20\/weekly-wisdom-am-i-living-by-the-spirit\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Weekly Wisdom: Am I Living by the Spirit?","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,232,981],"tags":[268,1193,270,1153,1191,1192,369,379,738,1194,910,1052],"class_list":["post-8039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-faith-family","category-weekly-wisdom","tag-bible","tag-crazy-love","tag-faith-2","tag-francis-chan","tag-fruit-of-the-spirit","tag-galatians-5","tag-god","tag-inspiration","tag-jesus-christ","tag-lukewarm-christian","tag-scripture","tag-words-of-wisdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ea16-25F","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8039"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8120,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039\/revisions\/8120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}