give up...and develop...

Intecessors of the Lamb - Teachings

"As we seek to rid ourselves of these sins of the spirit, we must look at the virtues that can be used to come against them. To simply get rid of sin, and not to fill the void it leaves with virtue, can set us up for another fall. It can keep those doors open to sin. Jesus talked about the parable of the person who had swept all the sin from his life. His house was nice and clean but it was not filled up with any virtue. It was not filled up with anything that was of God. It was empty. Jesus said that seven other spirits, more wicked than the first, entered in. We cannot leave the house empty. The Bible tells us that the last state of that man became worse than the first. It is one thing to surrender - to let something go. But we must also build as well.

We must give up our pride and develop humility. We must give up greed and develop generosity. We must give up anger and develop understanding. We must give up resentment and develop forgiveness. We must give up sensuality and develop purity. We must give up impatience and develop patience. We must give up gluttony and develop abstinence. We must give up envy and develop contentment. We must give up jealousy and develop trust. We must give up sloth and develop perseverance. We must give up hatred and develop love. We must give up fear and develop confidence. We must up worry and develop faith. To develop these we need to work at it. It must be our daily assignment to constantly replace the negative with the positive. Remember: perfection takes a lifetime. But there will be immediate results in our inner healing if we ask the Holy Spirit to help us daily. We will start to see the progress."