Be Fruitful
Today, God has laid on my heart to share/encourage you all to study and live out the fruits of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
These verses list nine fruits of the Spirit. Love of course is listed first. Love is the greatest commandment God gives us: Love your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Personally, I feel like love oozes into all of the other fruits. If you approach any situation in life with love, it makes being joyful or gentle or kind much easier. I think Jesus really knew what he was talking about when he said,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22: 37-40
I don’t know if you noticed that there was a BUT in Galatians 5:22. So I want to go backwards and point out what the verses prior say. It is very serious.
When I read Galatians 5:13-15, my eyes swelled and my stomach flipped. It hit home, in a not so good way. Verse 15 says, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Honesty time- as a family we sometimes bite and devour each other. It terrifies me that this verse goes on to say that I will be destroyed by others. Lord, help me be fruitful.
Galatians chapter five also explains if you don’t live by the Spirit, you then live by the flesh. Sexual immorality, impurity, fits of rage, jealousy, selfish ambition, drunkenness are just a few acts of our flesh.
The Spirit leads to freedom, which means the flesh leads to slavery, feeling trapped and out of control.
As a reminder of what the fruits of the Spirit are…
LOVE
JOY
FORBEARANCE (patience)
KINDNESS
GOODNESS
FAITHFULNESS
GENTLENESS
SELF-CONTROL
I challenge you to pick one of these areas that you want to improve on. Write this word on sticky notes, post these notes everywhere: on your desk, your fridge, the dishwasher, your car dash, etc. You get the point. Please remember, you are currently living in your flesh, so we are going to cave to our flesh desires more times than we’d like. Promise yourself that you will never stop fighting this fight. Your freedom depends on it.
Please know that I need this more than anyone. My phone wallpaper looks like this…
You are not alone, we are in this life together. I am praying for you and supporting you in your faith journey to live by the fruits.
My prayer
Dear Lord, My heart needs freedom. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to live in me and give me the ability to live by the Spirit. Help me and protect me from my own flesh desires. Keep me in your word to learn and become more like you with every new day. Amen.