I was thinking about what provokes change in my life and how I have grown over the years. I came to the conclusion that one of the biggest things is Pain. Pain forces me to take a hard look at myself and ask myself what needs to change. What needs to go. What needs to stay. Where do I need to learn. What have I learned. It is the uncomfortable places and unconvient times when I have learned something important about myself and who I am. One of the biggest things is what I am not. In the process though of learning what I am not, it narrows my focus onto what I am. If that makes any sense.
But, also growth for the believer comes through the gentle pull of the Holy Spirit. I never noticed before how we can shake off the pull of the Holy Spirit and quench him though. A God who created the universe and we can shake His Spirit off like he is not even there. He is a persistent spirit though and keeps after us with a love that is ever reaching out to us. It is like the God of the universe, who could force us at any time to our knees if he wanted to, choses to respect our wishes even when those wishes are contradictions to His own will. He doesn't demand to be loved, but rather loves as an example to us of what love is like.
Then, when we turn around and He finally has our attention we realize that it is our loss that we did not turn around sooner. It is our loss that we didn't realize that the one who was seeking our attention was the Spirit himself. The Spirit who moves and directs and plants within us the soil and the love and the nourishment that causes God's fruit to grow within us.
