Fruit is the Spirit's work. Keeping in step is ours.
Most of us know the list in today’s passage. We may have memorized it as children. But it is easy to read it as a to-do list: be more loving, be more patient, try harder at joy.
Read it again, slowly. Whose fruit is it? And what does the passage say our part is?
Notice too the things on the other list. Some of them, like quarrels, jealousy and divisions, look a lot like the church problems that disappointed you in the first place. The answer to them is not a better committee. It is people walking by the Spirit.
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Check in
Last time you wrote that you would:
This is where you will look back at yesterday. For today, just notice how you are coming into this.
An honest prayer
Pray this as it is, or in your own words.
Spirit of God, grow in me what I cannot grow myself: love, joy, peace, patience. Help me keep in step with You today.
Read
Galatians 5:16-26 (OTB)
16So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfil the desires of the flesh. 17For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit what is against the flesh; they are in opposition to each other, so that you are not to do whatever you wish. 18Yet if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19The deeds of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; 20idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, strife, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I have before, that those who engage in such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Against these things, there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death the flesh with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.