Paul

December 9

Galatians 5:16-23

The fruit of the Spirit

“Let the Holy Spirit control your lives!” Paul said in his letter to the Galatians. “When the Spirit is in control of your thoughts, you won’t want to do all the wrong things your human nature wants you to do.

For our sinful nature wants to do the exact opposite of what the Holy Spirit tells us to do.

What our human nature wants is quite obvious. It shows itself by impure thoughts, hatred, fighting, jealousy, anger, selfishness and complaining.

But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, a special kind of fruit starts showing—the fruit of the Spirit. The good things that start to grow in our lives are; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

How can I bear fruit?

Have you ever walked through an orchard or picked fruit from a fruit tree? It is a miracle how God makes colorful, juicy fruit grow on woody branches. When the Holy Spirit comes to live in you, He does the same kind of miracle! He gives you new life and lets the fruit of the Spirit show in your life!

An apple tree doesn’t need to try as hard as it can to make apples grow from its branches. All it does is soak up the sunlight from above and moisture from the soil. In the same way, when you are rooted in Christ (Colossians 2:6-7), you will soak up the fresh newness of the Spirit. By living in the sunshine of God’s love you will produce the kind of goodness that pleases the Lord. And as you grow in Him, He carries on working in your life—through your daily struggles—to prune away your natural reactions and replace them with the fruit of the Spirit.

Verse for today 

Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth). Ephesians 5:8b-9