A walk on the beach

I was walking on the beach with my 1 year old niece.  She had fallen asleep, and we had walked quite a ways from our chairs.  She is only about 17 pounds but I as I looked at the distance ahead of me, she felt like a ton.  I felt the Holy Spirit, paralleling this to my walk with God.  There is a certain transformation that must take place in our hearts and lives when we truly start to follow God’s plan.  Peter explains this transformation in 2Peter1 5-8: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity.  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make  you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ..”  The traits that Peter describes, are all ones that I want to possess, but like my walk on the beach it is a process.  I can’t just snap my fingers and arrive from point A to point B any easier than I can go from virtue to charity.  God was telling me that I am in control of my own pace.  Just like the weight of my niece that made the distance seem overwhelming, I have burdens, anxieties and distractions in my life that I try to carry on my own.  The crazy thing is that I don’t have to do it by myself.  Mathew 11: 28-30 “ Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke  upon  you, and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke  is easy, and my burden is light.” This is written in red! Jesus gives us a perfect solution to lighten our earthly loads but so many times I want to do it myself.  If I give these things over to Jesus, I can pick up my pace and focus on my walk with Him.
 So why is it so important to grow in these qualities   through our walk in God? Peter tells us in 2Peter verse 8, “ so that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In John15:1-14, Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches.  Verse 4 says “Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”  If our fruit was abounding, as Jesus designed, the world around us may look quite differently. We as individuals need to check our fruit..we as a church need to check our fruit..we as a community need to check our fruit.   I have inspected my fruit.  I hear the Holy Spirit nudging me to pick up my pace.  What do you hear?