You show that you are a letter from Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3, NIV)
The age of video instruction in golf has allowed both teachers and learners to consider a new possibility: model your swing as closely as possible after an accomplished tour professional whose natural tendencies are similar to your own. We can take a video of our own swing, set it up on screen alongside our model’s swing, and move increment by increment toward eliminating the differences and matching this master’s swing.
At least that’s the theory. The difficulty comes in our own limiting characteristics. We are not as limber, not has powerful, not as quick-handed—not as whatever—as that tour pro. And, most likely, we never will be. We can match the positions, but the fluidity and production are not so easy to come by, not to mention the strategic mind and competitive nerves!
Without this player taking off their skin and climbing into ours, there’s really no chance that we will become them.
The same can be said for our attempts at righteousness before God. We can take the Bible, call it a manual for respectable morals, make every attempt to “match the positions” of Christ’s excellence, and still miss out on what God would really like to do through us: shine in his glory.
In our consideration of who is a Christian, we can make very little progress unless we first allow for this foundational truth: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). And those who are Christians will reflect this Spirit of Christ at work in them.
You might recognize this as the fruit of the Spirit. It is by this fruit—or any other kind of fruit, Jesus said—that we will be known. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), and while there are those who have no interest in Christ who demonstrate some of these beautiful traits, they do not do so in service to Christ or even in service to others; their beauty is fettered by self-satisfaction or the quid pro quo benefits that come to them by way of being a “nice person.” I would never run such a person out of town, but it is always healthy for us to keep asking, of ourselves first and foremost, whether we are powered by the Holy Spirit or by our strength and pride. Those who are truly in Christ default with increasing regularity to the humility that makes way for his work in them rather than their own.
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Jeff Hopper
November 8, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.