Without Even Trying

How often have you heard someone (maybe yourself?) say, "I try to do the right thing"? We do try to do the right thing, don't we? We try not to lose our temper, we try not to be mean-spirited about people behind their backs, we try to be positive. And how often we fail.

In my continuing pursuit of what this whole Christian thing really means in everyday life, I read this phrase (attributed by Joanna Weaver to good ol' Oswald Chambers): "Conscious repentance leads to unconscious holiness." Yes, we're going to mess up. We do mess up. But our job is to stay connected to God, ask Him to clean our hearts of the messes we make, and trust Him to do what He says He'll do. Over time, the more we are connected to Him, those sour attitudes will dissipate and be replaced by His fruits of the Spirit. As we remain connected to the Vine, we will produce these attributes of a follower of Jesus. I used to tell God I was going to be more compassionate, more patient, and so on. But I tried to do it as a flawed human. The trick is to live in Him, rest in Him, and then more and more, we'll become like Him. Without even trying.