Duty or Delight? - Week 4

There were three important things I noted in my journal which I believed God wanted me to be reminded of.


Rely
Pruning
Repentance


During this week 4 journey, I re-examined my self on how much have I been relying in the Holy Spirit.  It's sad that most of the time, I don't.  Especially when things seem to be so easy to control, I just go on, on my own. I realized how much blessings I missed of not continuously relying in the Helper.  I'm just grateful that the Holy Spirit never stopped knocking at my heart and made me see that I need Him in my day to day. 


Are you familiar with how the branches of the grape vine are being pruned? Do you know that Jesus figuratively called us the branches, as He is the vine? When we started bearing bad fruits, the gardener who is God will start pruning us so that we will start again bearing good fruits. I'm in a pruning period right now. There are just a lot of things that God has been dealing with me lately. The process of pruning is never delightful but always painful. But, you know what? Jesus is the vine. No matter what, He will hold us together.


And part of pruning is constant repentance. That's why we need the Holy Spirit. Someone who will always remind us and help us resist in going back to our old self. It's never easy. I can attest to that. I'm still a work in progress also. But, we should never give up and just continue to find strength in God to overcome temptations. Repentance is also a day to day thing.


When you plant something, do you check from time to time the condition of your plant? Or if it bears fruit, do you check if it is a good fruit? One thing I always forget to do in my Christian walk is inspecting my crops. What are the condition of my fruits? Are they pleasing to God? I pray that I will learn to inspect. It's also a way for me to  see if what I've been doing have been glorifying to God or just simply pleasing myself.


"Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter." 2 Cor 7:8-11