Self-control is strength and calmness are the goal in any Christian life. We have to get to the point that our mood doesn't change based on the actions of others.
Don't allow others to control the direction of your life or your emotions, Christ should be directing us all the time.
Do not allow your emotions to overpower our Christ-like mindset.
At the end of our lives no one else will determine our destination, only Christ will do that. It doesn't matter if others go with us or if we pleased them, it only matters that Christ is pleased with us.
For Christ to be pleased we must care deeply what is in His heart and seek Him in all matters.
Do not become addicted to the validation of people, they do not know God's will for you.
As born-again believers, our goal is to please Christ, listen to His counsel, and reject all other suggestions from people which do not line up with His purpose for our lives.
Our friends ought to be those who encourage us in the way Christ has directed us. Anyone who attempts to discourage us from following Christ must be avoided, they will only derail what Christ is doing in us. They will even treat us with contempt for not doing things their way.
Galatians 5
Follow the Spirit
"5 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."
It is a form of bondage to be subject to others who do not love to follow Christ with the intensity you desire to follow Him.
Galatians 5:6-8 "…6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love. 7 You were running so well. Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the One Who calls you.
Galatians 5:10
I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is troubling you will bear the judgment, whoever he may be persuasion does not come from the One who calls you.…"
Be encouraged when you find yourself feeling nothing when those who do not love our Lord come against us. If we feel trampled and discouraged by them, then more work is needed in us, because people are more important to us than God when we take seriously their attacks on us.
Make Christ so important that you are unaffected by the personal attacks knowing they are really attacking Christ in us and not us personally.
Matthew 13 describes the seed sown in us, whether it is shallow or deep depending on our resolve to trust Christ fully in our walk. The more we must endure difficulties, and the more we stand firm the greater our faith becomes.
Hallelujah!
