God has been dealing with me quite a bit about spending more time examining the Fruits of the Spirit. Often certain attitudes race through my mind during the course of the day and before I know it discouragement creeps in and I find myself absorbed in my own self-pity, or so God tells me. I am discovering that what I want and what God thinks I need are often in direct contradiction of each other. We have all experienced this in different ways. That feeling that we are not being treated fairly, that our family is not quite pulling their weight around the house, or that people don’t realize how FANTASTIC we really are. Whether that happens at work, in ministry, or at home it is equally hard to balance the needs of our humanness with the call to live by the Spirit. Our human nature tends to continue to feed those feelings of discord and by doing so the problem, real or imagined, continues to grow.

As this problem became a regular visitor in my life I began to pray that God would show me how to navigate between the things that I "feel" and the things that are "fact". Now when those feelings start to surface I look to the Fruits of the Spirit as an example to guide me. I ask myself, "is what I am feeling at this moment an example of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control?" If the answer is "no" then that is a clear indicator that I am dwelling in the feelings of the flesh and not in the Spirit where I long to be. By realizing this quickly I am better able to move forward with my day; and instead of growing the problem I am purposefully deciding to grow fruit instead!

One week later the Lord gave me this scripture. I especially love the wording in The Message translation. I pray that it will be a Blessing to you as it has been for me!

Galatians 5:16-26 (The Message)