“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22
I am going to say something bold here and say that the fruits of the Spirit only grow in bad soil. God has been teaching me lately that I have to walk and act in the opposite spirit. How am I going to do that? I have to be put in situations that cause me to make a choice.
If someone comes against me with rejection, I have to come at them with acceptance. If someone comes at me with anger, I have to come at them with peace. If someone comes with depression, I have to come with joy and happiness. If someone is being controlling or domineering, I have to come with gentleness.
God answers our prayers by putting us in circumstances where we can be proven with the prayers we ask. If men are being tempted with lust, then they have to choose faithfulness to their future wives or their queens that sit next to them. God will always allow us to rise or fall to the challenge but He will never leave us nor forsake us.
I am learning that you can either become better in life or become bitter. God really is in control and the prayers that we ask almost always come in different ways then we think. God is challenging me to look at someone and find the good qualities about them and always bring them out. So often I become judgmental about a person and prideful in how discerning I am about their problems yet have such a hard time in always pulling out the good.
I have seen that if you have given your heart to Jesus and want to become more like him, everywhere you walk will be mirrors. Those mirrors can be in the form of your wife that sees all your crap, your best friends that know who you really are, or grace growers that God puts in your life for a reason.
No matter whom those mirrors are, God will always pull you out of yourself to become more like him.
Lord please help us to see the good in others and not the bad. Lord help us to uplift, encourage and walk in the opposite spirit no matter what.
