Fruit of the Spirit

A fellow blogger named Trish contacted me yesterday saying that my blog had been nominated by someone to display the Fruit of the Spirit graphic. Not knowing exactly what that meant, I looked at the links she supplied me with and found that I wholeheartedly agreed with her objective... to bring glory to God. Trish asks that people who accept this graphic post on the topic of the Fruit of the Spirit, so last night I studied Galatians 5 and thought about what I should share...

This is not a "pat on the back" for me and I wouldn't have wanted to participate if it were -- I can take no credit for anything that is in my blog. Everything that has happened this last year is ALL GOD; from the cross in the wallet, from unexpectedly getting bread on Tuesday because God knew we wouldn't be able to get it on Friday, to having a broken freezer start working again, to having someone meet us at the grocery store with a gift card when I didn't have enough money to buy all that we needed.

My husband's unemployment for the last year has been a blessing. I now understand what James is saying when he tells us to consider it all joy when we encounter various trials. Developing the fruit of the spirit in our lives is much more important than our comfort.... please understand that I am not saying that this is something I have done, but rather something the Spirit has done. The Holy Spirit is the producer, and the presence of fruit is not a demonstration of my faith or dedication or anything of that sort. But, rather, it is merely proof of my dependency on God. What better way to become totally dependent on God than to sweep away the crutches in our life, and see if we do still stand. This is when we must sink our roots deeply into the well-spring of our Father and draw our strength and sustenance from Him. This is when we learn the reality of our God and all He is willing and able to do! Not just in meeting our physical needs, but rather more importantly, developing within us the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Trust me, I do not have these things within my own nature. The dark times really do have to come in order for us to learn the most profound lessons of our faith. This is when we see that WE do not produce the fruits of the Spirit --- we discover them. They take us by surprise.... you draw close to God and.... WOOOOSHHH..... there they are.

This has given me an opportunity to reminisce. To look back over the last year..... what an amazing God we serve! You may or may not have noticed by now that I've put some links to old posts within this post. These link back to some of my favorite "wow" moments in this journey. If you look them over, you will see that I've had my share of days when I was SO totally discouraged, frustrated, and worried. You see, those are the times when I started trying to draw on my own strength. That is when the fruit begins to shrivel up, when joy fades and patience is unattainable. But, when I quit trying to do things in my own strength, and rather pull myself into the Father's lap.... that is when I look around and..... surprise!! There are the fruits. There is the evidence that I have finally released my white-knuckled grasp on the controls of my life and put it back where it belongs.

Thanks, Trish, for this opportunity to look back and remember what God has done. Thank you to whomever nominated this blog. I hope that the Fruit of the Spirit graphic brings new people to visit this blog so that....

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." I Peter 1:6-7