The Holy Spirit: Fruit

Another follow-up devotion from this past sunday's sermon

Verses for Wednesday Gal 5:22-26
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. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature
with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in
step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying
each other.

Prayer for Wednesday:
Be present, Spirit of god, within us, your dwelling place and home,
that this house may be one where all darkness is penetrated by your light,
all troubles calmed by your peace, all evil redeemed by your love,
all pain transformed in your suffering,
and all dying glorified in your risen life.
Jim Cotter

Thought for Wednesday:
Yesterday we meditated on the fact that we are freed so as to pursue the love of God, but sometimes we need some more concrete virtues to pray for and meditate on as a focus. Paul offers Gal 5 as one example of concrete virtues for the disciples to ask for, develop and seek. While Paul does not call these ‘fruits’ as a plural, but all of them are the one ‘fruit’ of the Holy Spirit, I confess that I am stronger at
some and weaker in others. So while we pursue all of these slices of the
orange which is the fruit of the Spirit, each may personally want to petition
the Holy Spirit for specific ones.
The fact that Paul calls them ‘fruit’ is intended, I believe, to teach us an
important lesson. To pursue patience, for example, relying on our own
strength of will, is not what Paul is describing. The fruit of the Spirit is not
something that we attain with our own labor. The fruit of the Spirit is a gift.
So while we must, through prayer, worship and the fellowship of the
believers seek to practice these virtues, we do so relying not on our own
wills, but on the support of others and the generosity of the Spirit. My point
is, don’t view the exercise of these gifts as something you must do yourself.
Instead, through prayer and the support of other disciples, receive these as gifts.
Don’t try to muster them of your strength alone, but instead ask to receive
them and imagine yourself and how you will look, act, and feel having
received them.