Galatians 5:22-23 “In contrast,, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” This episode talks about the fruits of the Holy Spirit and what you can do to see more of them in your life. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Fruit Of The Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 “In contrast,, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Yesterday, I talked about one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Today’s verse is on the fruits of the Holy Spirit. What is the meaning of the fruits of the church? The fruits of the Holy Spirits are actions that we can perform with the help of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we see these fruits we can tell that the Holy Spirit dwells in that person. It reminds me of a fruit tree. If the fruit tree is healthy, it will produce good, healthy fruit. If the tree is not healthy, it will not produce good healthy fruit. It may not produce any fruit at all. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are one way we can tell how spiritually healthy we are.
How are we living in the world today? Are we treating people like God asked us to treat them? The way we would want to be treated? Or, are we treating them how we think they deserve to be treated? Are we playing judge and jury with those around us? What is the Golden Rule? Treat others as you wish to be treated. Except how many of us are doing that? How many of us are being forgiving to those that wrong us? If you look over your last 24 hours, did you treat people like you would want to be treated? Did you lift people up and make them feel special? Did you yell at someone in traffic, or chastise your child for making a mistake? Is that the way we want to be treated when we make a mistake? What about when your child or your spouse does something that makes you very angry? Do you yell at them and make them feel bad? Do you stay mad at them all day, or week? Is this how we want others to treat us?
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” How often are we feeling these things? How often are we acting out of patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and self control? How much joy, love, and peace do we have in our days. These things are not things that just happen to enter into our day. These are things that we must cultivate in our lives if we want them. If we want to follow in Christ’s footsteps we need to examine how we are living out our days. What could we do to have more of these fruits in our lives? What do we need to do to become spiritually healthier?
First, pick one area at a time. I don’t think it would work if we decide today we are going to have more love, joy, and peace in our lives. We are also going to be kinder, more generous, more faithful, more gentle and have more self-control. If we set out to fix everything at once then we are setting ourselves up for failure. Have you ever set a bunch of New Year’s resolutions and given up after a week because it was so overwhelming. The same is true with this. If you take stalk on your life and you see some areas that you could work on, then write those areas down. Now that you have a list, pick one area that you would like to address first.
Second, be intentional. If you have decided on an area that you would like to work on, the next step is to be intentional about it. Spend some time thinking about and maybe researching, how you could become better in that one area. For instance, I want to be better at loving my family. I researched how to do that. I read “The Five Love Languages” By Gary Chapman. I had my husband and children take the 5 love languages quiz and now I know who they each receive love. I can love them better if I am speaking love to them in their correct love language. When you are speaking love to someone in the wrong language then it doesn’t matter how many times you say it, they can’t understand what you are saying. That book is not the topic of this episode but if you haven’t read it I highly suggest it! The point of mentioning here is to reinforce how important it is to be intentional about improving the fruits in your life. If you need to have more peace or more joy, figure out how you can intentional make time for and cultivate that in your life. It is not just going to happen.
Third, pray about it. If you are not seeing a lot of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in your life then talk to God about it. We can’t do anything without the Lord but with Him we can do all things. If you wish to experience more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control in your life then spend time each day in prayer talking with the Lord. Maybe start a practice of spending one moment before you get out of bed thanking the Lord for giving you a brand new day of life. Maybe take a moment while you enjoy your coffee to tell the Lord what you need for that specific day. In my mentoring group, “Big Life Mentoring” Pamela Crim has us take three big breathes each morning and ask God what we need for the specific day. Each day might be different. One day you may need energy and patience to make it through a really long day at work. Another day you might need joy and peace and the ability to stay in the moment as you enjoy the weekend. Whatever it is that you need, just ask the Lord for it. He wants to give us what we need and is just waiting for us to ask.
The fourth thing to pay attention to how God is answering your prayers. You asked Him for help and so He is going to help you. Be on the lookout for and notice the ways that you are growing in those fruits. Notice when you have more love, joy, and peace in your life. Ask yourself at the end of the day if you were more patient with people. Did you feel more patient when your kids wanted to tell you 100 things right as you walked through the door? We you kinder to the person at the grocery story that messed up your order? Were you more generous with tipping your server? Maybe you notice that you have more self control these past few days. Whatever it is, take notice of it and be grateful. God is happy to answer our prayers and He also happily accepts our gratitude.
Gratitude is something that is so beneficial. Not only is it great to thank God for all the answers to your prayers that He is going to give you but it also makes you more award of other good things. When you set your mind on gratitude you will start to notice so much more around you. Our brain sets out to look for whatever we tell it to look for. If you are looking for the fruits of the Holy Spirit you will find them. If you are looking for all the ways you are struggling, your brain will find that. I wish every knew how truly powerful their brain is. If you set out to be grateful for all the ways God is showing up in your life, I promise you that you will notice things that you have not noticed before. I don’t know your thoughts right now on how much God is showing up in your life. Maybe you are struggling to see where He is. I guarantee that if you make it your mission to see how God is showing up in your life, you will notice that He is there in so many ways. Even if you change nothing else, and just focus your mind on gratitude for the ways He is showing up for you, you will be amazed.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. We pray that you bless all of us with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Lord we ask that if we are spiritually unhealthy in any way that you shine a light on it for us so that we can fix the situation. Lord we ask that you help us to grow in these fruits and that you guide our actions so that they show the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Lord, help us to be grateful for all the ways you are showing up in our lives. Help us to know that you are there even when we can’t see it. Lord, show us what we need to do. You are amazing Lord! We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.