One of the most powerful instruments that God gave me at birth was my volition. At any moment I can choose His peace over drama; His joy over pain. With Him in control, I don’t have any problems. Every form of adversity that comes my way is an opportunity to witness Him performing another miracle in my life. By trusting Him instead of trying to solve it with my limited understanding, the miracle may be as simple as having patience instead of agitation; peace instead of worry; faith instead of fear, or any of a myriad of other manifestations of God’s Spirit working in my life. When I choose the illusion of thinking I can act on my own and overcome adversity by my cleverness, I am doomed for failure. If my competence appears to be successful, my ego is fed and that tends to drive me away from the Lord’s presence. I would much rather experience failure and abide in Christ rather than flourish and think that I did something without Him. I pray that God will cause me to fail whenever my ego takes over and I lose the awareness of my intimacy with Him.
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me."
John 15:4
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; against such things there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23