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WELCOME TO GOD FOCUS THIS MORNING

The title of today’s episode: SELFISHNESS IS NOT FRUIT

I think you would be hard pressed to find any sin that is not rooted in selfishness. When we become self-centered, we can fall easily into things that are the opposite of self-control. The enemy will try to encourage us in our selfishness. When we are looking at ourselves and what we want, we take our eyes off of God. His will for our lives is unimportant at that point.

All excess is rooted in emptiness. When we live a sinful life, we are searching for something we are missing. We look for that fulfillment in many places other than God. He is the only one who can give us the fulfilment we seek. Not having any fruit in our lives will cause us to be excessive in our pursuit of the wrong things or rotten fruit. It may look good at first glance, but once you bite into it, you find out that it is rotten, moldy, and bitter. However, the fruit that God gives is pure and perfectly balanced. Selfishness is the opposite of self-control.

God’s word teaches us to be selfless and walk in love toward others. When we become filled with the Spirit of God, our lives will start to develop fruit. We will walk less in our self-centeredness and more in our love and compassion for others. It is impossible to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the earth while maintaining a self-centered attitude.

Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

As children of the Most High God, learning how to allow God to create fruit in our lives is important. Our flesh is weak and wants the quick fix, what is comfortable and appealing in the moment. The growth process is anything but quick and comfortable. We have to learn to wait on God to do his work.

The process is a little easier because we know we can trust him with our lives. He knows what is best for us, and he has our best interests at heart. God sees who we need to be in the future and develops strength in areas we are going to walk.

Allowing Jesus to penetrate our hearts will prevent us from betraying him with selfish motives. Not everyone who attends church is on the right path. Some are there to network and grow their businesses. Others are there to deceive and manipulate people into bad relationships. Some are there for monetary gain in other ways.

We cannot fully trust people until they prove their fruit. Every one of us has a measure of discernment. Some develop their discernment, and others choose to ignore it because they do not want to think badly about someone. Learning to be led by God and listening to our discernment will keep us out of trouble.

The perfect example in the Word of God was Judas. God allowed him to walk with them. He was selfish and sold out Jesus for a little bit of silver. But until that point, he could have gone either way. He could have resisted temptation and done the right thing. But his selfish greed outweighed his need to do the right thing.

We often think about Judas’ actions as something that was meant to be, but if he had not betrayed Jesus, the Pharisees would have found another way. Jesus would still have chosen to die for mankind.

God knows something we have to learn.  We must allow people to make their choices good or bad. We never know when God will change those people and cause them to develop fruit. Not everyone grows fruit at the same pace. In order for anyone to grow the fruit of the Spirit, they must first receive the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Ghost that causes us to develop fruit. The more we surrender to the leading of God’s Spirit, the more fruit will grow in our lives.

It is almost like self-control is needed to develop the other fruit. We have to control our impulses to do selfish things for ourselves at the expense of others. Having self-control will cause us to walk in love, joy, peace and grow in Christ.  

Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

If we walk in the Spirit, we will not be selfish wanting to do what our flesh say, but we will have enough self-control to keep our focus on God. We will desire to do what God tells us to do, not what we desire.

Until next time,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

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