Fruit of the Spirit

During the sermon last week, I was jotting a note about patience. I asked the Lord for more of it. Then I wondered, what is it? So I tried to define it, but really couldn't. Then I started thinking about the fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22 and what they are and aren't. Here's sorta what I came up with for some of them:



Love. If the primary person you care for and tend to and live for is yourself, then you have not love. Philippians 2

Joy. If your "joy" is in how happy you are dependent on your circumstances and how effectively you "love" loving yourself, then you have not joy. James 1:2

Peace. If you put your "peace" in your comfy pillow-seat of a life instead of in carrying your cross with stripes on your back toward death, then you have not peace. Matt Lantz

Patience. If you take comfort in certainty rather than in being uncertain about everything but the faithfulness of God, then you have not patience. Oswald Chambers p.120

Self-Control. If you continue to chase your desires and live self-servingly and are unconcerned with the choices that God wants you to make and do not painfully self-sacrificingly strive to tame your body, then you are not self-controlled. 1 Cor 9:24-27