But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).

No law

No restrictions

You can be just a loving, just as patient, just as gentle as you want to be.

You can have all the joy and peace and self-control you can handle.

Feel like being kind, good, or faithful?  Go for it, Baby!

You don’t have to pray about it or ask permission.

The sky’s the limit.

Go crazy, Kid.

Well, now…that sets a tone for the rest of the week, ya?

Happy Tuesday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

If you read last Wednesday’s post, you need not wonder about my level of self-control.

On the other hand, I teach twelve-year-olds for a living, and I’ve never hit one with a stick, so maybe I’m learning.

That’s the thing about self-control.  You are trying to control the self, the will, the flesh, the part of you that wants, not to be controlled, but to be in control.

The part of you that strives against Almighty God.

Does that mean that every time I go back to sleep when I should go to the gym, or play on Facebook when I should be getting work done, or blah blah blah when I should Ta Daaaaaaaaaa! that I’m sinning against God?

Be careful, Beloved.  That way lies madness.

Yes, our blatant slovenliness is a reflection of our sin nature.  That’s why it’s not counted as a fruit of the Spirit.  But you know what?  Most of the people I know–probably including you–already acknowledge and confess and beat themselves up about it.

News Flash–you’re not perfect.

News Flash 2–you will be.

Let the Spirit do his work, Beloved.  The fruit will ripen.

Happy Monday.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness…  (Galatians 5:22-23)

I am not, by nature, gentle.

At least, that’s what my family and friends and students and fellow drivers tell me.

But, hey–what do they know?

That is why, on those somewhat rare occasions in which I engage in gentleosity, I know that the Holy Spirit is at work in me.  And the Spirit does work in us, Beloved, producing fruit that is at odds with our nature.

Because, let’s face it–anything truly good is at odds with our nature.

Praise God that he works in us, through us…and in spite of us.

Happy Friday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…  (Galatians 5:22)

Faithful

Old Faithful

The term conjures up images of geysers and hound dogs and brings along words like reliable, dependable, stable.

Boring 

Better to be known as exciting, mysterious, edgy, unpredictable, dangerous.

Maybe…in books and movies.

But in real life, we long for faithfulness.  It means you will be there, day in and day out, come hell or high water.   You will not be distracted or enticed or driven from your commitments, your promises, your oaths.

You will reflect the nature of God.

Hence the fruit of the Spirit.

How many homes have been destroyed by faithlessness?

How many hearts?

Too many

Embrace boring, Beloved.

Happy Thursday.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness…  (Galatians 5:22)

When I was a little kid, I tried to be a good boy.

No, seriously…I did.  And, except for a few experiments with alcohol fires and the unexplained throwing of a rock at my neighbor’s window–seriously, I don’t know why I did that–I was good.

Well, I mean, there was that time I hit the neighbor kid with a golf club, and the time my cousin’s cap gun went missing and ended up in my pocket, and the time I tried to teach myself to drive and mowed down a fence with my mom’s car, and the time I “egged” a guy’s house–and father–because, well, yeah, and the time I employed evasive driving maneuvers against the police because one more ticket would cost me my license, and of course the tickets leading up to the need for evasive maneuvers…

So maybe I wasn’t so good.

And maybe neither are you.

But remember, the Holy Spirit is at work in you, and he will produce fruit.

So you do what you can, and he’ll do what he can.

And there will be good.

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness…  (Galatians 5:22)

Be nice, for crying out loud!

Any questions?

Happy Tuesday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…  (Galatians 5:22)

I could make a bunch of patience jokes, but who has time for that?

Ba da Bing!

The essence of patience is that you put yourself on God’s time rather than your own.  You acknowledge that God knows everything you know, plus everything you don’t.  You recognize that he sees far beyond the moment in which you’re stuck behind some…person…who doesn’t seem to know what the pedal on the right is for.  You admit that maybe God has it all–even your commute–under control.

You trust him.

Beloved, when we come right down to it, that impatience is another part of the whole control thing.  You want it your way and in your time because you want to be Captain, to be Master,

to be God.

If you can just release that need for control and trust the Holy Spirit at work within you, you will procure a profound peace and a plethora of patience.

At least, that’s what they tell me.

Happy Monday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…  (Galatians 5:22).

In this corner…

Mortgage

Taxes

Orthodontist

Broken car

Broken home

Broken heart

Job stress

Family stress

Financial stress

Politics

Illness

Age

Loneliness

In this corner…

Jesus

No contest, whatsoever

Happy Friday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy…  (Galatians 5:22).

Not happiness

Not joviality

Not glee

Joy

The deep and abiding knowledge that you are loved, that you are whole.  It lies there beneath the surface of our life, unaffected by the storms of the moment.  Joy is much bigger than the moment.  

From time to time it rises to the surface, bubbling up to take us by surprise and sweeping us off our feet with an intensity that leaves us breathless.  Then it recedes, knowing that our physical frame can only take so much.

But someday…

Someday we will trade this frame for a new and improved model that can handle joy at full strength.

That’ll be nifty.

May Joy bubble up in your life today.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love…  (Galatians 5:22).

On the count of three, I want you to create a mango.

Ready?  One…Two…Three!

TaDaaaa!!

Hey, where’s your mango?

Oh, that’s right.  You can’t make a mango, because a mango isn’t in your nature.  It’s a fruit of the mango tree.

As love is a fruit of the Spirit. 

Beloved, you can do loving things–and you should–out of obedience to God.  But that feeling of unselfish love, of wanting someone else’s good above your own…you can’t manufacture that.  It comes from the Holy Spirit, and it develops and ripens in its own time and on His schedule.  So don’t force it, and don’t kick yourself for not feeling what you think you ought to feel.  Just let the Spirit work in you.  Be obedient to his commands, and the fruit will mature right on schedule.

His schedule.

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.