Salvation is the boundless beginning of God’s grace bestowed into our hearts, mind, and spirit once we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. He knew that salvation alone wouldn’t be enough to transform us into the beloved sons and daughters that he created us to be. Through His grace, he permanently placed the Holy Spirit within us, thereby grafting us into the Vine, enabling us as the branches to bear the Fruit of the Spirit, vital virtues necessary for transforming our lives. These virtues enable us to deepen our relationship with Him and then with our loved ones, family, friends, fellow believers, and non-believers.
Jesus told us how vital the work of the Holy Spirit is in us when he said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” John 15:5. We cannot truly love, have joy, know peace, have patience, show kindness, be gentle, be good, have faith, or self-control in our own strength. This “fruit” is dispersed through us as we abide in Him. The Vine produces the fruit; we, the branches, distribute the fruit. We don’t produce the fruit; that’s the result of the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit in us.
By God’s grace, this fruit comes because of obediently abiding in Him. Purposely setting aside time daily and moments throughout the day to listen to, learn from, live, and love Him.
What does “abiding in Him” look like? At its simplest, it’s starting your day in gratitude before you get out of bed, thanking Him for the privilege to walk and talk with Him. I also recommend consistently using a God-guided daily devotional with scripture reading that gets His word into your heart and mind. This only takes 15 minutes, but if consistently done daily, it makes a life-altering difference by obediently abiding in Him.
Abiding can also be worshipping God in spoken word or song, keeping a prayer or gratitude journal, meditating on or memorizing God’s word, or finding a quiet place to be still, listen, and know Him.
Taking abiding in Him further would be to give Him today’s agenda, asking Him to provide the wisdom and fruit of the spirit in every meeting, conversation, text message, and e-mail. Abiding is praying for family, friends, co-workers, staff, vendors, clients, and customers that your work will impact. Then, listen for His guidance in your heart as you interact with these people throughout your day. This takes “abiding in Him” out of the Bible and into your world, allowing His light to shine through and seeing every interaction as an opportunity to be an instrument of God’s grace in someone’s life.
Bonus Blessings of Grace
By grace, this same fruit-bearing Holy Spirit constantly prays for God’s perfect will in us according to Romans 8:26-27, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
By His grace, the Holy Spirit’s powerful presence is placed into us at the moment of salvation. The Spirit brings the fruit that enables us to become like Christ and supports this transformation through constant prayer to our Father for His will in us to be birthed and brought forth into all of our relationships.
Aren’t you glad that God’s amazing grace grows us, producing in us the fruit that transforms us and our relationships? May we daily abide in Him, and let his grace do the rest.
I hope today’s blog both challenged and encouraged you. If so, make sure you sign up to receive blogs posted every week. Check out our resources at TransformingFamilies.org. Our mission at Transforming Families is to provide relationship restoration resources that enable you to become the man or woman God created you to be.
I also provide one-on-one coaching; if you want to improve your relationships, let’s connect through e-mail at ‘rturner@transformingfamilies.org’. My hope for you is that through these blogs, references, and resources, God will transform you from being bruised or broken to an abundantly blessed beloved child of God.
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Forging Resilient Relationships “Forged” transforms a man’s understanding and ability to develop healthy intimate relationships. Forged empowers us to become valiantly intimate men through the grace-filled guidance of God’s Word. This revolutionary program enables men like us to discover and develop the Five Pillars of authentic God-given intimacy in all our relationships, equipping us to forge relationships that last a lifetime.
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