The Result

Galatians 5:19-21 (MSG) It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:
repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
Wow! You would think Paul (the writer) was alive and living next door. What has changed?
Our trinkets are electrical, we move faster but the underlying results are the same.
So what is the answer? something so simple, free, clean, peaceful, restful, considerate, right. A relationship with a living God who says 'come to me, you who are burdened and I will give you rest.'
What does 'come to me' involve? Letting go!
If our arms are full of one thing and we want to take hold of a new thing we have to open our arms, let the stuff fall and then reach out to the new. Simple!
A loving relationship with a living God does not come with a list of dos and don'ts. It comes with an invitation to 'come to me'.
To be able to change direction we have to be stopped, still. To be able to hear the invitation we have to be quiet, the voice is calling.

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