Galations 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
The fruit of the Spirit starts with love and ends with self-control which made me think of a sandwich. I thought it would be good to check and see how we're getting on with our sandwich making and if we taste nice!
When we read what love is in 1 Cor. 13:4-6 we see that the fruit is wrapped up in love and flows out of love and it's because God loved us first that we can then love others. If we have all these ingredients then we'll taste nice to other people but if we leave some of them out it's a bit like eating grapefruit with no sugar!
God knows we can't produce the fruit of the Spirit by ourselves because really it's only the Holy Spirit within us who can make us behave that way. He is in the process of changing us from one degree of glory to another in order to reflect the Lord Jesus and His character in our lives but He requires our co-operation. The more we get to know Jesus, the more we'll reflect Him, the more fruit we'll produce and while that is happening we can learn to enjoy the glory we're in at the moment.
If we fall short sometimes God looks on the heart. He's not shocked or surprised when we get it wrong but He sees our heart is right. He doesn't want us beating ourselves up when we get it wrong but to remember God approves us where we're at. He's already declared us righteous in Jesus and because we're putting Him first place we can trust in His forgiveness and that He's transforming us from the inside out, to want what He wants and behave in a way that honours Him.
Apostle Peter reminds us the way to live a godly life is to get to know God more, get to know Jesus more, the rest will automatically follow. 2 Peter 1:2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
Please look up and read the next verses in 2 Peter 1: 3-11 and you'll discover a similar list of fruit which results from believing His promises that enable us to share His divine nature. It'll help us all in our fruit sandwich making and make us taste nice! 😊
Have a great weekend.x
No comments:
Post a Comment