The goal of Spiritual life is to bear fruits. What happens internally with our relationship with Jesus Christ, will be seen externally by our life. Most of us do the oppsite by focsuing on the external and neglecting the internal- our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
In the Bible Jesus talks about people who did lot of things on the outside but internally, they were far off from God. ). He spoke of those who "honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Mark 7:6). He declared, "What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God" (Mark 7:20-23). Again he said, "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit...You cannot pick figs or grapes from thorn bushes. Good people do good things because of the good in their hearts. Bad people do bad things because of the evil in their hearts. Your words show what is in your hearts" (Luke 6:43-45).
Most of us are pretty good at putting on a reasonable show on the outside. But what we really are is determined by what is on the inside! It is obvious that if our morality is going to be acceptable to God it must begin on the inside. God comes in the person of his Spirit for this very purpose - to begin a radical make-over job, beginning on the inside. This means that as I begin to grow in my relationship with God through Bible reading, prayer, learning to trust and obey him, and fellowship with others on the same journey, I will become conscious of changes. New desires will replace old - a new love for God and desire to please him, a new concern for others. Old habits will begin to drop off and new ones form. The Bible says, "God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled" (Galatians 5:22, 23). These are qualities that Jesus exhibited perfectly in his own flawless character.
This transformation doesn't happen overnight. The process will continue till we die, and it depends on our co-operation. But it is God's doing - transformation from within. The day will one day come when God will "present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy" (Jude 24). In that tremendous day of resurrection the process will be complete and we will be seen to be the perfect handiwork of him who died and rose again for our salvation. "We will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is" (1 John 3:2). Claudio Taffarel is a Brazilian soccer player who made the finals of the 1994 and 1998 World Cup. Describing the effects of the realisation that Jesus had died for him, the confession of his sins and his efforts to follow Jesus' teaching, he said:
The verse in the Bible: 'Draw near to God and he will draw near to you,' really spoke to me. My commitment to Jesus Christ didn't bring big changes at first, but as I looked at myself, I realized that I was gradually changing from the inside.
Let us live a life focusing on our relationship with Jesus and the result of it would be a life that brightens Jesus!
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