I start out my day by diving into quiet time with the Lord. It definitely sets me up to live for Jesus everyday. Having quiet time with the Lord hasn’t always come easy to me. I would think of every reason not to spend the time, then I would realize that a week has gone by. Through the Race I have built the habit of not missing a day. Now if I don’t take the time to pray and talk to the Lord at least once a day I can definitely see a huge difference, I become more easily frustrated and annoyed. Through intimacy with God in this way I can see how He has grown me so much over the past 9 months.
Something that I love to do is pray the fruits of the Spirit over myself. Each fruit has a certain stop that I pray over, so I figured that I would write out each one and talk about how I have seen the Lord grow me in it.
This is my ESV version that I pray through so sorry if it is different.
1. Love –
From my past blog about how God had taught me how to love, you know this one is a big one. I place my hand over my heart and say “ God let me live out of love today and show everyone the love that you have given me.”
2. Joy-
I really enjoy this one. I place my hand on my stomach and ask the Lord to fill me with joy. Not a fake happiness, but pure joy from the Lord. The best way I can describe having joy from God is not pretending everything is fine and keeping a fake smile, but choosing to be joyful in the good that is all around us. Even when my situation is not the best, I want to live above my circumstances and not let the bad things in life keep me from the amazingly wonderful thing that the Lord has for me.
3. Peace-
I truly feel like God calls me a woman of peace. I put my hand on my head and pray that I have peace over my thoughts and my decisions. Sometimes I feel like my thoughts run wild and I really just want to have peace over myself.
4. Patience-
So for this one I put my hand on my throat. I know seems weird, but I want to be patient before I am quick to say or do things. In my throat is where I get ready to say words, so I want to be patient there. Once I put words into the world I never get the back so I want to make sure I am spreading only good things.
5. Kindness-
Another big one. I used to label myself as “angry one” but the Lord calls me ‘kind one,” so I want to live out the kindness always. I place my hand over my mouth. This one goes with the last one. The words I say I want to ONLY spread kindness with them. I have been told that I have great authority over my words and that I should be careful because just as much as I can spread kindness with them, I can also speak death.
6. Goodness-
Yes! goodness. I rub my hands together and pray that all the works I do with my hands today produce goodness. Here in Swaziland we serve food to kids at carepoints, and I want to use my hands for good and help serve people.
7. Faithfulness-
For this one I grab my bicep, because I want to be strong in my faith in God. No matter what comes my way I want to trust in the Lord always. So I pray that I can always remember the Lord’s faithfulness and not forget it throughout the day.
8. Gentleness-
I put my hands together and move them from my chest outwards. I do this because I pray for a spirit of gentleness for when I am interacting with people. I want to approach any person with a gentle heart. I never want to be hard or unapproachable. I believe that if I have gentleness people are more willing to open up and be venerable.
9. Self control-
I have had a past of letting what I am feeling in the moment dictate how I am going to react and respond. I want to live above my current emotions and stay focused on what the Lord says is true and the bigger picture. I take my pointer finger and draw zig zags over my chest. I pray that I don’t ever let my emotions get away from me, that the Lord always gives me self control.
Thank you for reading! I love all of y’all and I couldn’t be on this trip with all of your support!!!
