To live well in this world, we need more than to just try harder. If we want lives that are marked by love, joy and peace, if we want to see goodness planted in the soil of our marriages and families, we need something we can't actually drum up from inside ourselves, however hard we try or how disciplined we become. The truth is, we need someone to come from outside of us to empower us to live the good life. The good life not on my terms but on God's terms. It is His world, and He wants us to live a certain way. But He doesn't just say try harder, He comes to us in the person of His Spirit, to enable us to grow into those people, to more closely resemble His Son, the Lord Jesus.
This book contains a reminder and a profound encouragement for the Christian. You have been given the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ and he is working these beautiful qualities in you. You have the resources you need at your disposal to live a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. God has gifted this to you through His Son, so look to him to grow and develop them in you, don't think they can be found anywhere else.
But also, alongside the encouragement for the Christian there is also an invitation to the whole world. Look at the qualities that God grows in those who put their faith in Him, isn't this the sort of life we are all trying to live? Isn't a life marked by these beautiful qualities what everyone is seeking? We look in all kinds of places to find it, we put ourselves under all kinds of stress trying to achieve it, and yet here is God offering it to us as a gift. Come and welcome to the good life.
Chapter Headings:
The Spirit in a Time of Chaos
Love in a Time of Division
Joy in a Time of Anger
Peace in a Time of Discord
Patience in a Time of Instant Everything
Kindness and Goodness in a Time of Selfishness
Faithfulness in a Time of Pressure to Compromise
Gentleness in a Time of Harshness
Self-Control in a Time of Self-Obsession
