After completing the Strongholds Study Course in RU, many people go on to the next book in the Gaining Remaining Fruit series. This is a recent testimony sent to us from someone who completed the Uphold Study Course. We hope it will encourage you just as it did us!
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I grew up being your typical good Christian kid – in a family with saved parents who loved me. There is no “perfect” family, but mine came pretty close to the best of them.
But with sin in the lives of everyone, I had some horrible experiences in my childhood as well. And although I know I can never blame my parents for not protecting me, a child’s mind always believes that their parents will always be able to protect them from predators.
Until I began the RU curriculum, I had not realized that I had some deep bitterness and anger about what had happened to me as a child. Although, it was not pointed directly toward my parents, it was there and adversely affecting my life. I had asked the Lord to help me forgive, and so I thought that was all I needed to do to be done with it.
When I started looking at the Fruit of the Spirit and the opposite of each fruit, I began to realize that the “fruit of my flesh” was NOT acceptable. As an adult I had accepted anger, constant frustration, and discontentment as just the “norm” for me. The RU curriculum helped me learn to identify the right and wrong emotions and actions (aka: “fruit”). God then gave me the desire to seek the godly attribute of being Spirit-led! The last amazing “revelation” is that God even helps us take the action to do so! Like a beacon turned on in the middle of complete darkness—I was on my way!
I began seeing my behaviors for what they were: sinful fleshly responses. But I also understood that once God began ridding me of that sin, there would need to a replacement. The RU program teaches us to spend daily devotional time with the Lord, so He could begin to fill that void with the fruit of His Spirit. It was not long before I began feeling His peace and contentment so that when stressful situations arose, I wasn’t reacting with the old behaviors!
I thank God for the support He has given me in my RU Director and wife as well as my RU Chapter. God has truly blessed me over abundantly – beyond my imagination. I can hardly wait to see what God has for me as I start the Behold Study Course.
