Love and Fruit, a Step at a Time

How astonished I was to hear myself telling a friend that I like the changes God has been effecting in me. Never in a million years did I seriously believe that God could take someone with a heart and life as messed up as mine and do anything significant with me let alone through me. But here I am, looking at someone in the mirror who is being transformed right before my very eyes. Though I fall daily, and though it is not uncommon for me to fall hard, more and more I see in myself the woman of God He created me to be. So I shouldn’t have been surprised to stumble upon some Bible verses that to me sum it up in a nutshell.
God wants love to prevail in our lives, for us to learn to do right instead of wrong, for us to be genuine and aspire to be without sin, and to be filled with the fruits of living according to His ways so that we bring Him praise and honor. How often I have sped so quickly while reading the Bible that I have missed such beautiful and powerful scriptures as these. God wants us not only to repent of our past sins and believe that Jesus is Lord, but for our hearts and lives to be transformed just like these scriptures say.

For a woman who has spent so much of her life in darkness and in anything but the love of God, how refreshing, how unbelievable, how awesome it is to know that at long last my commitment to love the Lord with all my heart and to follow Him as best I can where He leads me is bearing fruit. Not just any fruit, mind you. But the fruits of righteousness. I am anything but perfect, but at least I can finally say I am on my way. Following Jesus begins with a step. And then another. And then one more. And, step by step, in following Him, in leaving our old ways behind and repenting when we find ourselves stumbling once more as I so often have, we can learn to live the lives on this earth we were created to live – lives that bring glory to the name of the Lord!

If you look down at your feet, which way are they walking? Are you following the Lord? If you look inside your heart, what is it filled with? The fruits of righteousness? If you look at your life, are you watching it become transformed right before your very eyes by the Lord? Are you walking in His love? If you are not, why not change course right now, repent, and follow the Lord – step by step.