Fruit

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

 

This is another of those pesky verses that get quoted too often. I’ve referred to it recently without going into depth, so when it came up as the verse of the day, I had to sigh. But, as I said when I referred to it – what if? What would we look like if we actually had those in our lives?

What if we wanted what is best for each person we encounter?

What if we truly believed that God will meet our needs?

What if we stopped fighting with God, and to the extent possible, with other people?

What if we put up with the things we encounter, even though it’s hard?

What if we loaned others our strength?

What if we did what we know to be right and useful?

What if we kept our words?

What if we didn’t use any more strength and power than we needed to (which might be quite a bit less than we think we need to.) What if we didn’t impose our wills on others?

What if we learned not to figuratively dirty our (internal) diapers and how to respond properly to accidents?

All of that sounds good, though chances are good that we don’t want to learn them. People say we should never pray for patience, because we’ll get it – because everything will go wrong. The same is true of the other things.

If we pray for love, we’ll be called on to love the unlovable.

If we pray for joy, we’ll face needs, because we can’t learn that God will provide unless there’s something that is needed.

If we pray for patience, we’ll encounter God and others not doing what we want.

If we pray for kindness, we’ll find people “needing” us.

If we pray for goodness, we’ll have to reject what is less than good – and chances are that we like the less than good.

If we pray for faithfulness, we’ll be seduced.

If we pray for gentleness, we’ll find ourselves in situations where we want to be stronger.

If we pray for self-control, we’ll be seduced.

But there’s a bigger thought here. These things aren’t the source or cause. They’re the fruit. They occur naturally only as a result of the Spirit being in our lives. I used to pray my way through the park, asking for one household to be blessed with love, the next with joy, etc.  I don’t there’s anything wrong (wicked) about doing that, but I wonder if it would have been more correct to have prayed for the Spirit to move in each trailer/RV/mobile home. And when it came to my home, or me, I wasn’t so good at praying. It felt a little selfish. It wasn’t. It was necessary. And I neglected it. I think God knew what I was really asking in regard to the others, and He didn’t let me negligence stop Him from working in my life.