My favorite websites are those that teach and demonstrate where true greatness comes from. Greatness is a rare find.
Greatness comes through:
* Love not disdain (Speak the truth in love.),
* Joy not negativity (Delight in the gift of life.),
* Peace not divisiveness (Be a peacemaker.),
* Patience not hurriedness (Endure with hope.),
* Kindness not rudeness (Be gracious.),
* Goodness not moral abandonment (Obey the risen Jesus.),
* Faithfulness not infidelity, (Keep your word.),
* Gentleness not harshness, (Be tender hearted.),
* Self-control not self-focused desires. (Use self-restraint.)
For true long-lasting greatness continually delight in the Lord. Meditate on His word and surrender to His presence and will day and night. Then you will begin to manifest the servanthood greatness of the fruit of the Spirit that is produced by “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
The fruit of the Spirit can’t grow much in the weeds of self-focus and pride. Where the fruit of God’s Spirit isn’t visibly flourishing there’s a whole lot of Spirit-quenching going on! The key to daily experiencing the abundance of the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit in and through your life is to live by the Spirit, walk in step with the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, and be taught by the Spirit. You can’t truly experience the fruit of God’s Spirit without keeping your heart open to, surrendered to, attentive to, and obedient to the Holy Spirit.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Without a deep burning desire to know Jesus better, it’s easy to stay stuck in the routine religion of comfortable Christianity.
Here are ten Americans who have best demonstrated the qualities of true greatness to me in and through their lives:
This blog post beautifully emphasizes the importance of embodying qualities like love, joy, and patience to achieve true greatness. Can you share a personal experience where you saw these virtues in action and how they impacted you or others around you?
I once spent 3 months in India teaching in a Bible school. The young adults that I taught visibly manifested much of the fruit of the Spirit in their day to day lives and in their passionate love for Jesus. One of them went to start a church in a village that had never had a Christian church. One day as he was getting water at the community well, a group of people stoned him to death because of his faith in Jesus. I think about him often.