the fruit of the spirit...
visiting and looking after my father in Switzerland right now, wanting to have more patience, and joy and peace and love, I decided I should look at what the Bible says about the fruit of the spirit..
as always, I looked not only at the one verse but rather at the few around as well..
wanting to be changed and molded more into the likeness of my Savior Jesus Christ, I decided I should memorize this :)
so here it goes:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:16-26
I love memorizing for many reasons... one is that when committing a verse / a passage to memory it so totally makes me meditate on it... and since we are supposed to do that anyways, it really is a great thing to do...
as I read and read it again, I think about it, I mull it over and over and I hear it... I say it out loud and so the Word interacts with the Spirit in me... and it shows me all kinds of things...
the Spirit came to live in me the day the Lord opened my eyes to see Him for who He is... who I am and that He took care of the penalty of my sins.. once and for all... that same Spirit is at work in me, and will not give up on me until I get to move into my eternal home..
so fact is, all the fruit of the Spirit is being grown in me, is fully available to me, and I can be sure that as much as it is up to me to surrender more and more of myself to the Spirit's leading, it's all mine, for my benefit and for God's glory....
so...if I am struggling with any lack of those fruit, I know that I can get them, this is what my Father wants for me..
running around yesterday, a more discouraging day for all kinds of different reasons, praying I realized, walking with the Spirit also means walking in grace.. relying on God's grace for all that I am lacking... patience, endurance, peace, JOY.. love, all that...
relying... what does that mean... acting with the assurance that what I am relying on will not let me down.. so I can choose joy even when I don't feel it... I can take one step after another even if I feel I don't have the strength for the next one... He is faithful.. I know it..
memorized the first two verses this morning, I am choosing to stand on truth rather than letting my feelings ( and let me tell you there are many being where my mother has always been ) dictate how I feel and act ...
I want to be a good ambassador, a good representative of the One who gave it all for me...
I love Him more than my comfort .. He is worth it, every second of every day...
