Fruit: Praises Offered as a Thank Offering

Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

This past weekend at Fuel, we learned how to use the Blue Letter Bible to look up the origins of words and the complexity of their truth translations.  Matt explained how English is such an overly simplified language in comparison to Greek or Hebrew and therefore when we read our Bible we do not always see the shades of meaning behind each word that is written.  For those that weren't there, or those that need a reminder.  Here's how you do it.

• Go to BlueLetterBible.org.
• At the very top where it says "Search the Bible," type in the scripture reference (book/ chapter/ verse) and change the version from KJV to whatever you read.  (I like NIV.)
• When the verse appears, click on the scripture reference and a chart will appear.
• Next to the word you want to see defined, click the code in the "Strong's" column (looks like a letter followed by a bunch of numbers.)  Then you will see the full definition for each word.

Today, I used this tool to try to get a better grasp on the fruit of the spirit… and I'm so glad I did.  

Word	Observations	Application
Fruit	Can mean an effect or result of, but can also mean praises offered as a thank offering	Whoa!  Remember the “halal” life (abundant life over-flowing with praise) that Pastor Chris talked about on Sunday?  These qualities or “fruit” are not only evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in our life, they are our lifesong… our praise to God!
Spirit	The Holy Spirit	The Holy Spirit is the source of all these things.  We can’t make ourselves be them.  They are his work in us.
Love	Goodwill, brotherly love	This kind of loving means looking out for others in a selfless way… Wanting good for them above yourself.  I sure do spend a lot of time looking out for my own good.
Joy	Gladness	This is more than just feeling happy.  This is the eternal gladness.  The ability to say, “No matter what is going on, God is good.”
Peace	The tranquility of a soul assured of salvation	Peace is saying, “Whatever happens here on earth, I know where I’m going.  I can handle whatever suffering may come with the assurance that I’ll be spending eternity in the presence of God.”
Patience	Endurance, perseverance	Again, during the hard times, we hang on.  We know that God is our strength and he will sustain us through it.
Kindness	Integrity	This definition surprised me.  This word kindness means more than being nice to someone.  It means having integrity, which we teach our kiddos means “doing the right thing even when no one is watching.”
Goodness	Righteousness of heart and life	Not only must we have good intentions but we have to live them out.  1 Corinthians 4:20 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
Faithfulness	Conviction of the truth, belief	We’ve talked a lot about faith lately in our Godfidence series.  But I had never really thought of my faith as a praise of thanksgiving (fruit) to God.
Gentleness	Mildness of disposition	Ugh!  I’m so bad at being mild in disposition.  I admire women who are soft-spoken and gentle.  But I have a smart mouth.
Self-Control	The virtue of one who masters her desires or passions	During the Deliverance message of our Four Cups series, Pastor Chris talked about the fact that we are three-in-one also (made in God’s image).  We are a combination of body, soul, and spirit.  If we let the body take control, we will be slave to our desires and passions.  If we let the soul take control, we will be captive by our emotions.  But if we let our spirit take control, we are surrendering over to God’s will for our lives.  So really, self-control, means surrendering to the spirit.

Prayer:

Lord, you are so amazing!  And I so badly want this fruit in my life because I want my life to be filled with praises offered as a thank offering to you.  But I know that the only source of this fruit is your Holy Spirit.  So Lord, please fill me with more of the Spirit.  Help me to mature in each of these areas.  Make me more complete, God.  It's in Jesus' name I pray!  Amen!

Confident in this…

Miranda