THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. Galatians 5: 22-26 - Part 3

From FSAOF blog:
"Howard Webber is a retired Pastor having served for many years in various appointments as a Salvation Army officer. He is an award-winning author and weekly contributor to this SA related blog.
On occasion, he favours us by sharing hitherto unpublished articles. Here then is one such offering; a three-part Bible study."

You see, only Jesus can live a life pleasing to his Father. We are all flops and failures that disappoint God, even though we are reluctant to admit it. Well, who of us would wish to do that? After all, we do claim to be his disciples. Who wants to put on the mantel of a failure? But until we swallow our pride and climb down from our pedestal and admit it, we are unlikely ever to be totally dependant on Jesus Christ like a branch is to a vine, and we will not know what it is to have Christ do what only he can do by living his life within us.

The great Charles Wesley admitted it;

I have long withstood his grace,

Long provoked him to his face,

Would not hearken to his calls,

Grieved him by a thousand falls. SASB 286

and again

Just and holy is thy name,

I am all unrighteousness,

False and full of sin I am,

Thou art full of truth and grace.  SASB 737

and our own William Booth admitted it

My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong,

They blind my poor soul and they force me to wrong.

                                              SASB 298

and again

Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,

My life has been joyless and useless for years.

These are Christians, God's people who recognised their need to be filled with, immersed in and saturated with the Holy Spirit. The marvellous thing is that despite us being helpless flops and failures, God hasn't given up on us. He loves us and has a remedy, a means of escape from the frustrating and hopeless situation we find ourselves in. He doesn't merely want us to try and mimic his Son Jesus and do as he taught. He wants us to have an intimate relationship with him whereby we abide in him and, through his Holy Spirit, he abides in us and lives his life through us.

The natural result of all of this, of being filled with God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, of abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us, is that we develop a Christlike character. He becomes greater as we become less. The branch of an apple tree naturally produces apples. It doesn't involve stress and strain on the part of the branch. The fruit it bears confirms the branch's relationship to the tree, and shows that the tree's sap is flowing through the branch. When the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that was and is in Christ, fills a person, it is most easily observed in the Christlike character of the person, what is often termed the fruit of the Spirit displaying itself in person's life. Galatians 5:22 describes that fruit of a Spirit-filled life, that Christlikeness – (note it is fruit not fruits) - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. What is being described is the love of Christ, the joy of Christ, the peace of Christ, the patience of Christ, the kindness of Christ, the goodness of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, and the  gentleness and self-control of Christ. I am sure these are but a sample of the terms that could have been used to describe Christ's character and nature.

I have heard Christians pray for more love, more patience, more self-control. That is to be wanting a bit of Christ's nature where we judge ourselves to fall short. Our real prayer ought to be something like, 'Lord empty me of me and fill me with your Holy Spirit. Fill me with the Spirit that filled Jesus. Make my life so connected with you, indeed an extension  like a branch to a vine, that all that is in you might flow through me. Lord, show me how it is not about me and what I can do for you, what I can achieve for you, but about surrendering myself completely and being emptied of ME and filled with you....your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus living his life in and through me.'Amen

"But the Lord was with Joseph" - It´s Thursday (32)

'But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favour in the eyes of the prison warder,' Genesis 39:20b, 21.

Having experienced the possibility of being murdered by his own brothers, then being saved by his big brother Reuben, only to then be sold into slavery, things did not turn out as bad as he may have expected when Joseph got to Egypt. Joseph was sold to Potiphar, a good master who treated him with respect and trusted him. But it didn't last when suddenly, condemned for something he hadn't done, he found himself in prison.

But in it all we read that the Lord was with Joseph, vs 2,21, 23. Life at times can seem like a roller coaster ride with no rhyme or reason for the things we are forced to experience. We can so easily become bitter and question God's providential care. But the important point that we can so easily forget is that when we accept Christ and commit our lives to God, what we are actually doing is saying, 'God, I no longer own my life. I am here to fulfil your purposes. I have no ambitions of my own any more and am willing for you to do with me whatsoever you desire to achieve your purposes. Whether that entails pleasant or unpleasant experiences, I will trust you. Amen.

That does seem to have been Joseph's attitude. Consequently, the prison warden discovered in Joseph someone very different to the prisoners he normally encountered. May those who we encounter this week sense a difference in us; a faith and consistency that defies those negative experiences that come our way or bad situations we find ourselves in. May they realise that the Lord is with us and desire to know him for themselves. God bless you all.