Dear Precious Friends,
On this magnificent Monday because God has given us a new day so He still has work for us to do...
For the next 10 days I want to share the fruits of the Spirit and look at each one. I always share what I need to hear so let's look at each one and start today with an overview. You may have heard about the fruit of the Spirit and wondered what it is and how it relates to being a Christian.
In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists nine specific behaviors – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – that are the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life. are starting the fruits of the Spirit and looking at one each day.
I'm sharing God's word, His truth... Regardless of who we are, the Spirit works from the same model, Jesus Christ.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
– Galatians 5:22-23
The challenge when dealing with such well-known Bible verses is that it’s easy for us to become overly-familiar with them. We’ve heard so much about the fruit of the Spirit that we don’t take the time to meditate upon them and consider what they mean for us.
And when we become overly familiar with them, they become less present in our lives.
The reality is that they really are beautiful and when the fruit of the Spirit is present in our lives, it’s an incredible, life-changing thing.
So with that in mind, lets freshly consider what the fruit of the Spirit are and why they’re so important.
An examination of the fruits of the Spirit can be intimidating. Working all nine of these traits into our life seems impossible, and indeed it is. But the moment we became a Christian, the Holy Spirit began a divine work to produce Christ’s character in us. Regardless of who you are, the Spirit works from the same model, Jesus Christ.
The Spirit looks to Christ in order to find the blueprint for our character. The Spirit will immediately begin helping you experience and practice the same love that Jesus had when He laid down His life for His friends. The same joy He experienced will now fill you. The identical peace that guarded the heart of Jesus, even as He was being beaten and mocked, will be the peace that the Spirit works to instill in us. The patience Jesus had for His most unteachable disciple will be the patience that the Spirit now develops in us. The kindness Jesus showed toward children and sinners will soften our heart toward others.
There will be a goodness about us that is only explainable by the presence of the Spirit of God. The Spirit will build the same faithfulness into you that led Jesus to be entirely obedient to His Father. The Spirit will teach us self-control so that you will have strength to do what is right and to resist temptation.
All of this is as natural as the growth of fruit on a tree. We do not have to orchestrate it on your own. It automatically begins the moment we became believers and accepted Jesus in our lives as Lord and Savior.
.How quickly it happens depends upon how completely you yield yourself to the Holy Spirit’s activity.
Let's devote ourselves to learning what God's word says about each one of these fruits and look into our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us how we are to reflect Christ in our lives.
Let's meditate on each of these scriptures as we go about our day doing ALL THINGS IN LOVE.... and why is that?
Scripture always has the answer:
1. "Love one another." —1 John 4
2. "Do everything in love." —1 Corinthians 16:14
3. "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." —1 Corinthians 13:2
4. "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." —1 Peter 4:8
5. "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." —1 Corinthians 13:13
6. "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." —John 15:12
7. "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." —Colossians 3:14
8. "With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." —Ephesians 4:2-3
9. "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." —1 John 4:12
10. "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves." —Romans 12:10
Have a beautiful day meditating on these and asking the Holy Spirit what areas we need to reflect God's love more... in the midst of these troubling times. Tomorrow we will immerse ourselves on the first fruit of the spirit.
Love you all
AMEN