The beautiful fruit the Holy Spirit bears in us
Daily Scripture
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
The prophet Isaiah wrote, “But now, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). In today’s reading, the apostle Paul (who in another place spoke of God’s children as “clay pots”—cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7) used the image of a fruitful tree to portray the kind of people into which God’s Spirit is steadily shaping us as we daily seek to renew our openness to his presence. The Spirit’s craftsmanship in our human lives results not merely in inspiring internal experiences—it ultimately shows itself in lives that glow as they act out the beautiful qualities Paul listed for the Galatian Christians.
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Most of us are products of a culture that tells you strongly that “you get to be whatever you want to be.” For some people, that makes the idea of allowing God’s Spirit to shape you into the kind of person portrayed in today’s reading sound like a bad thing. Do you believe letting the Spirit shape you robs you of your individuality, or makes you fully into the full humanity God intends you to have? Think through the reasons for your answer. Do you express or act out love, joy, peace and the other fruit of the Spirit in ways that were not characteristic of you in the past? Take a personal inventory of how present each of the “fruit of the Spirit” qualities is in your life. Prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify one or two of the areas you most need to grow in.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, keep shaping me on your divine potter’s wheel, making me into the person you want me to be. Thank you for the Spirit’s constant presence to guide and mold me. Amen.
GPS Insights
Anne Williams
Anne Williams has served as a pastor at Resurrection since 2011 and is now the Resurrection Downtown Location Pastor. She loves to guide the process of reconstructing faith. She and her husband, Eric, raise two sons, Jude and Reid. Anne writes real, honest devotions about everyday life at thebradshawdrafts.com.
In February 2022, I was invited to read through the words of Matthew 5 and imagine I was part of that crowd hearing the Sermon on the Mount for the very first time. The Bible I had with me at the time was The Message translation and reading a version I wasn’t as familiar with made his words come alive in new way for me that day. These words, in particular, brought a lump to my throat: When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves (Matthew 5:44-45a).
This is what it means to be clay in the Potter’s hand, open to the molding of the Holy Spirit. It means being fiercely determined to transform difficult interpersonal experiences into opportunities to be shaped by the “supple moves of prayer.” Sometimes those opportunities are plentiful, and we can think “Man, life is really out to get me right now.” James, on the other hand, “counted them as a joy” (James 1:2) because he knew these hard moments bring so much growth. I’m not quite to the point of counting them as joy, but I have started to realize those most complicated dynamics we face are the moment God’s Holy Spirit can work on us the most.
For me this has come in the way of humbling myself before others who I’ve wronged, apologizing and committing to do better. It has come in the way of establishing important boundaries, hopefully articulated with unending mercy. It has meant surrendering my way, my plans, my schedule, when the world doesn’t cater to my convenience. I trust that God will faithfully show up to mold and shape us when we respond with the supple moves of prayer.
