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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Want to live a life that makes a positive difference in the lives of others and does so in a way that is totally pleasing in the Lord’s sight?
Believe in Jesus and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, a Spirit sent by God to lead you in the ways of righteousness, ways that produce fruitful qualities.
What are some of those fruitful qualities?
We find out in verses 22 and 23 of Galatians, chapter 5, the focus of the first two messages in this series. Thus far, we have covered these fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, and goodness. Today, we conclude by looking at the final three.
1. Faithfulness.
If we are going to continue growing and harvesting fruit via the Holy Spirit in our lives, we need to sustain our faithfulness to the Lord, the Lord who is always faithful to us.
It’s true, right?
God doesn’t turn away from us. He is always near and ever ready to be our strength and very present help (Psalm 46:1).
Unfortunately, we aren’t as committed, are we?
Too often we allow the world, and the enemy who abides in it, to take over and lead us into satisfying the desires of our flesh, which we have learned is synonymous with our sinful nature.
Therefore, the hinge point for either producing or not producing the other fruits of the Spirit is faithfulness. Remain faithful to the Lord who is ever faithful and you will display fruitful qualities. Turn from Him toward sin and you’ll fail to yield anything that honors and glorifies the Lord.
2. Gentleness.
When I think of gentleness, I always think of the words of Jesus as He tells us what will fall on us if we believe in Him. He said:
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
John referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). When I think of a lamb, I think of a very gentle animal that is very humble in comparison to other creatures.
We come to Jesus and we receive gentleness, and then can pass it onto others. In other words, we can allow Jesus’ gentleness to extend to others through us, just as we can many of the other fruits like love and peace, kindness and goodness.
In the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the Apostle exhorts the Christian believers to let their gentleness be evident to all (v.5). When we follow the gentle Jesus and are guided by the Holy Spirit, we can fulfill this command to put gentleness on display.
3. Self Control.
How well do you maintain control over yourself?
I know I’m not so great when I am attempting to self regulate. Just get me out on the road trying to commute in city traffic and I am quickly reminded how much work I need to do in this area. Maybe you can relate.
But self control is more than just trying to keep our emotions in check. It’s also about our words and actions. Satan is always at work trying to entice us to go after our desires and wants, not the Lord’s. He is always testing our self control.
Adam and Eve, the first couple ever, came into a perfect world. God had given them His creation to live in and they had everything He made at their disposal except for one solitary tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were forbidden to eat its fruit but anything else was acceptable (Genesis 2 and 3).
It seemed easy enough, right?
But man, that fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil looked so delicious. Adam and Eve were yearning to have a taste but God had said “no” so they refrained but were right on the brink of disobedience and losing self control. All they needed was a little nudge.
Enter the serpent aka Satan.
All he needed to do was push aside the couple’s concerns that God would bring them death and they surrendered to their longings, violating God’s order and ushering sin into the world. Loss of self control in Eden’s garden changed life thereafter for all mankind and indeed, today we are still dealing with the repercussions of Adam and Eve’s transgressive behavior.
Loss of self control will lead us into iniquity just as it did them and we can’t afford to let that happen but here’s the thing. We can’t possible regulate the way we live without the power of the Holy Spirit helping us. For real self control, the kind that the Lord expects, only comes through the fruit that the Spirit breeds within us. Stay rooted in the Spirit and you will reap self control, as well as every other fruit in this passage.
Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son and the Holy Spirit He sent to guide us.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com.
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