Reminder

I would like to speak from my heart today and remind you not to get tangled up in the fruits of darkness.  We are to walk in the fruits of the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh.

What are the fruits of the Spirit?  They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness, gentleness and self–control.  Many people can quote these things, but are they evident in their lives?  These words are so easy to say but so hard to display.  I don’t know if you ever thought about it this way, but, if you have the fruit of love you will have the other fruits also.

The Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear.  If you give in to worry, fret and fear you must not have perfect love.  Think about the Lord, He is, and has, perfect love and He has no fear.  Question: if we claim we love the Lord, and we really trust Him, should we have anything to fear?  If we fret, worry, are stressed out and fearful, how can we have any of the fruits in this list working in our lives?  You might say we have plenty of things to fret and worry about, and that is true, but do worry, fretting and fear really accomplish anything?  

Question: how does it show that we trust the Lord?  When I think about the disciples after the day of Pentecost, they didn’t seem to worry about anything, they trusted the Lord for their provisions and protection.  We need to follow their example and truly love and trust the Lord.  We need to take authority over worry, fret and fear and cast them behind our backs in the name of Jesus.  Then we can walk in the Spirit and show forth the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.

What are the works, or fruits, of our sinful nature?  In Galatians 5:19–21 it says, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  It also says in the same chapter verses 24–26, “those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”

We definitely want to avoid these things and not fall back into these sins. So if we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength we will be walking in the Spirit and should be able to overcome worry, fretting and fear and be filled with the fruit of the Spirit being evident in our lives. This has been a reminder that there is power in the name of Jesus and we need to use it and also stand on all the promises of God.

Praise the Lord and have a great day!!