[Devoted1]

"That's What I Want!"
By Zach Wood
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.


During our devotion time last night, my wife and I were reading this passage in Galatians where Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit. As I read, I kept thinking to myself, "Yeah! That's what I want!". Do you find yourself reading through Scripture passages and just wishing you could be more like some of the characters who had such a great impact on others? I sure do! I want to be more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, a lot more patient, kinder, showing more goodness, more faithful, gentler and exercising better self-control. Whew! That was a mouthful!

Let's break this passage up into chunks, if you would. Maybe it would be a good idea to focus on one fruit at a time for a certain period of time just to work on being better rather than trying to take care of all of them at one time. Life is already overwhelming enough. I would challenge you to focus on one of these each week for the next couple of months and ask God to give you strength to become stronger with each fruit. Some may be easier than others, but take the time to improve on each area. I want to do this for myself as well.

I challenge you, after you read this devotional, just to look at each fruit and maybe evaluate yourself on how you think you are doing practicing each one. Don't beat yourself up over not doing such a great job on some, but ask God to show you where you need to improve and give you strength to become stronger in the ones you struggle the most.

I would like to close this devotional by sharing verses 24-26 with you as Paul closes this chapter out. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." If we belong to Christ Jesus, He will give us strength to leave the sinful nature and live by His Spirit.
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