I have known for quite some time that my smart phone is smarter than me. More significantly that my children are capable technologically beyond my capacity to do. I learned a long time ago that I needed my kids to program the VCR clock, and to set up my computers. But I was totally blown away yesterday.
I had engaged in texting with one of my girls about setting up an appointment with someone she worked with, and I had given her some options. Suddenly my I-phone dings, and I look down and she has placed an event, date, and time on my phone calendar. I don’t know how to do that. I mean, I struggle trying to figure out how to put a time on my own calendar. So how did she schedule something from her desk downtown to my phone as I sat at my desk in my home office?
The apostle Paul speaks in Romans 7 of wanting to do what is good and right, but continually battling his sin nature and doing what is wrong and what he doesn’t want to do. The truth is, as frail and finite humans, with a flawed character and a sin nature, we cannot just simply change who we are by a simple decision, “I will do better.” We may change some minor habits with some self=help behavioral modification process, but we cannot deal with the root problem of sin on our own.
But when we experience a rebirth, a new life through Jesus Christ, God in the person of the Holy Spirit comes to live in our heart. And for all practical purposes as we abide in Him, God downloads onto the hard-drive of our hearts nine characteristics called the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. WOW>
Just like I struggle with programming something onto my phone calendar, and my daughter can do it long distance; what I cannot do in my life, God does. So that the apostle Paul could write, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I still live. But the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. . . ” (Ga. 2:20) It is God living through me in the person of the Holy Spirit. God changes me. God “re-programs” my heart. Hallelujah,
bradunleashed 