Fruit of the Spirit Part 1~ Renee Arnold

If you look in Galatians 5:22-23, you will see a list of character qualities that you've probabaly heard rattled off many times before. This list contains love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and self-control. These verses says that the Holy Spirit in us will produce these qualities, just like a good tree grows good fruit. Even if you've been a Christian a long time, that doesn't mean you're not going to struggle with these things. It just means that they should be developing as you mature in your faith. Over the next few months, I will write about two of these fruits at a time so it's not an overload on your system when you read 6 whole paragraphs on virtues at once.

Love may seem like the easiest out of all of them because we talk about love a lot in our culture. We usually say "I love you" to at least one or two people a day, wheather it be our parents, boyfriend, siblings or best friend. We kind of toss the term around csually, but what is true love? The love like Jesus had for us, where he was willing to be tortured for us. But, you don't need to die a grusome death to love someone. Loving someone can be as simple as helping them through a tough time, sitting with an outcast during lunch, giving cookies to a neighbor in need, or showing Christ your love worshiping and making a habit of reading your Bible every night. Love is so much more then three words, our world lacks people who genuinely care. Make a decision today to reach out in the form of a loving gesture to one unlikely person this week!

The next fruit found in Galatians is joy. Joy is a funny word, the dictionary describes it as a feeling of pleasure and happiness. That makes no sense becasue that would mean the Bible says it's a sin to be sad which is certainly not true. Even Jesus had times when he was upset and didn't feel happy and He lived a blameless life. Biblical joy is always having hope in Jesus Christ and not dwelling on the bad in your life. Even when everything else goes wrong, you know you have Jesus, and He will help you through. Lean on Him and you will find this subtle inner happiness no matter what you're facing, that's what joy is.

Keep your eyes out for my article on peace and patience!

Love,

Renee

 

 

Did you know that Renee has a reaccuring dream about an alligator??