By Greg Crum

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Proverbs 16:32

For 14 weeks now, we have written of our higher calling in this life—the call to become a Christian. Now, when I say that, please understand that I don’t just mean the response to an altar call, as eternally significant as that moment in our lives is, but more specifically, I mean the call to become progressively more Christlike in our thoughts, words and deeds, so much so that these deeds gain momentum and become our personal character.

As believers in Jesus, we are called to conform to the faith of Christ, not just to have faith in Christ, and as we grow in this faith, we should reflect his character more and more in our lives. As daunting as this task may initially seem, it is possible if only made so by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

As we have mentioned in previous articles, when the Holy Spirit comes to abide with us, He brings with Him His character and deposits that character into us as well. In Galatians 5:22-23, we see some of God’s characteristics detailed in what we know as the “fruit of the Spirit.” This is the character of God revealed, and it is in every believer, yet we don’t see it demonstrated in every believer. Why? Because these traits don’t possess us and force themselves through us, they reside inside us, and it’s our responsibility to allow these characteristics to flow out of us.

Now, last week we discussed meekness, better known in our modern language as humility. We said that humility is a deep dependence on God, that it is the key to great strength, great victory, and accomplishing truly great things in this life, and that our level of blessing from the Lord is contingent on our level of true humility.