 On the list next for the Fruit of the Spirit Study is Self-Control. It is tempting to keep scrolling. Who wants to read about self-control right?
In an earlier post for the Fruit of the Spirit Series we stated, “ Love is the foundation that is required to grow joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control”. The fruits of the spirit are so intertwined. To really love others you have to be joyful, be kind, be peaceful, have goodness, and have faith! To be joyful you have to practice the other fruits. Faithfulness also is fed by kindness, patience, and self-control. Being filled with the Holy Spirit can be thought of as having a basket full of these fruits!
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 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Phillipians 4:5
Have you ever met someone who has a gentle and quiet spirit about them? Who has such a calming presence? Who has love and understanding that never stops flowing? Their gentleness is so evident that it warms your heart. These are the funerals you attend and people have unending stories of how this person blessed them with their gentle and quiet spirit.  I sat in Heather’s office one day asking, “What if I lose my faith in all this?” I was traveling back and forth between Duke Hospital on the weekends, then home to work during the middle of the week. Bill was staying there full time and we kept getting worse news with each doctor visit. I began to worry that losing my husband of almost 25 years would shake me to the inner core of my faith and even my identity. Heather’s reply to my question that day came to mind when I was studying faithfulness. She basically said, “I know you. You won't lose your faith.” Later that evening I asked the same thing of Aleta, Crystal, and Kara… their response was the same. It was if they all were more sure than I was about who I was.
 Goodness just sounds like such a sweet fruit of the spirit when it rolls off the tongue.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2nd Peter 1:5-8 At my Dad’s house we have a set of blocks that has stood the test of time. They are at this point probably 40 years old. Not only are these blocks good quality, but if you start off with a good foundation whatever you build is very strong. This verse reminds me of building blocks; you start by having faith, add goodness, and then lots of other things can be added!  This week’s topic in the Fruit of the Spirit Series is kindness. This word is thrown around a lot these days as everyone is struggling just trying to get through the day sometimes. Kindness is a choice but it can also be abundant. How can we be kind not just in single moments but also make kindness a part of our character?
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I gave you with unfailing kindness. (Jeremiah 31:3)  I don’t know why God made me the way I am. My mind, my tendency to overthink, analyze, go so deep in my head that I am visibly away from the present circumstances. My mother used to call it “checking out”. She described it to me as watching me fall backwards into something inside my head. She would even account for it in how she parented me. She used to joke with others, “just give her a minute, she’s checked out, she will be back”. I would be very deep in thought and come back around and she would be staring at me blankly then ask, “You back yet?”
 In Galatians 5:22-23 the first fruit of the spirit listed is love. There seems to be infinite ways to study and discuss the word “love” as it appears throughout scripture in many forms. This study focuses on Jesus’ response which so clearly tells to focus our love into three things: God, others, and ourselves.
In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus is asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “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.” |
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