Fruit of Righteousness

     Happy New Year! Wow, 2015 came in like a lion in our household. My husband is recovering from an emergency triple bypass heart surgery. But as always, God has been good during this whole difficult ordeal. Which brings me to New Year's Resolutions…we all think a new year will bring new changes and challenges, but we feel up to them, right? Today anyway.
     What if your resolution this year is to live a more righteous life, could you do it? What would that look like for you? Isaiah 64:6 tells us this about human righteousness, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…" The hope we have in 2015 is the prayer Paul wrote in Philippians 1:9 "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God."
     Human righteousness equals "filthy rags" whereas God can create the "fruit of righteousness" in us when we are in Christ Jesus. May your fruit reflect God's righteousness this year!