Fruit of the Spirit
I will never forget when my mom told me I never need to pray for patience, kindness or self-control because God already gave them to me. Instead I should pray that God would help me to use the patience he had already given me, the self-control that he already provided.
I think so often I pray for something because it’s easier to wait for God to do something than to take action personally and start doing. I’d rather place the blame on the Lord and be able to say, “Well, He hasn’t given me patience yet. Therefore, it’s okay for me to respond like this…” And no, that might not be a conscious response, but it definitely is what my subconscious thinks. (There I go, shifting the blame again!)
The truth is that when we accept the free gift of salvation, believing all of what Jesus said and did for us, at that very moment we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and all of the power, authority and fruit that comes with Him.
However, we don’t automatically look different or have supernatural gentleness because we are still full of all of our old fruit, too. God can’t fill what is already full - or maybe he’s just too kind and gentle to force himself on us. Either way, the Bible says in Philippians that Jesus emptied himself, and it also says in Hebrews that He is our example. So, if the God of the universe had to empty himself, how much more do you and I need to do the same?
Thankfully, we aren’t in charge of this emptying, but we do have to welcome it. We get to choose daily, hourly and moment-by-moment to surrender to the leading, pruning and growing of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Each time he removes a little bit of the bitterness toward your mom or dad, there is room for more love.
Each time he removes the lack-of-forgiveness toward the guy who broke you, there is room for more joy.
Each time he removes the envy toward the person who got the promotion you wanted, there is room for more peace.
Each time he removes the need for control and being in charge, there is room for more patience.
You already have the overwhelming and all-encompassing kindness of the Lord in you, but sometimes it’s just hidden or choked out by the fruit of your old life.
The thing is, though, pruning hurts.
A few years ago, I was getting horrible headaches and jaw pain, and nothing helped. By the time we learned it was my wisdom teeth, all four of them were severely impacted and infected, and I needed to be rushed into surgery. Due to how badly they were infected, I was under anesthesia for much longer than normal, and the recovery was rough.
While the surgery and recovery were painful, the alternative would’ve been much worse. The pain was purposeful and, therefore, worth it.
We all have things God needs to prune away. The verses preceding the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians give a thorough list of things that are not of the Kingdom and opposite to God’s fruit. In case we read them and think, “Hey, I passed! I’m good,” Paul ends with saying “things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21).
AKA – no one is the exception to that list. No matter how good you live, you’re not the exception. No matter how patient you are in one moment, there’s still the moment right after where you shake your fist at the person who cut you off in traffic. It’s those moments and those realizations that make me exceedingly grateful to the Lord for his sacrifice that covers not only the big sins, but also the little ones. (Thanks, Jesus, for paying the price for me, even when I consciously and subconsciously blame you for not giving me something I already have.)
The verses opening this chapter of Galatians say, “For it is for freedom that Christ has set you free.” I’ve always wondered at those verses. The repetition of the words clearly indicates importance, and the following verses are reminiscent of a warning. “Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
I don’t think God is surprised when our old fruit tends to overtake the new fruit, or when we might run from the pruning rather than toward it. We are people who love comfort and familiarity, even when that familiarity is not good for us. But, if we want to be different, whole and healed, then we have to do it God’s way and not ours. Much like the quote, “If you want something you’ve never had before, you must do something that you’ve never done before.”
One of my favorite commentary authors, Timothy George, wrote, “Because of who God is and what He has done for believers in Jesus Christ, Christians are commanded to ‘become what they are,’ that is, to make visible in the earthly realm of their human existence what God has already declared and sealed in the divine verdict of justification.”
The pruning is the becoming, bringing a little bit of heaven to earth in our bodies, our lives and our relationships.
We are free to prune our bad fruit and make space for the new fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Friend, because of who he is and what he did, you’re free to become who you already are.
