Living Beyond Yourself--Introduction

I am excited to be starting another Beth Moore Bible study, "Living Beyond Yourself" on the fruit of the spirit.  It's a basic fundamental uplifting study that I hope to gain some insight from. 

So far after just one week, I realized that with God's Spirit in me, I can do things I never expected I would.  Two points Beth Moore made in the DVD that goes with this study are:

1)  God is still happening and 2) God wants us to be exclamation mark people, meaning we should have a full, meaningful life. 

One of the points made this week that struck me was that our life is not all about us.  Sacrifice on the part of Christians is crucial to world evangelism.  Paul was persecuted and faced many hardships, yet kept his joy (Read Acts 13).  Boy, that got me to thinking how I handle hardships or even just little problems that come up and ruin my plans!  My "joy" usually flies away and is replaced by anger.  God has shown me that this ought not to be.  As I submit to God's will and ask Him to fill me with his Holy Spirit each day, hopefully I too will be able to keep my joy regardless of my circumstances. 

I expect I'll be tested this week with the remodeling of our basement and scheduling new carpeting for our living room.  We'll see.