The Holy Spirit bears “fruit” in your life
Daily Scripture
Galatians 5:16-24
16 I say be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires. 17 A person’s selfish desires are set against the Spirit, and the Spirit is set against one’s selfish desires. They are opposed to each other, so you shouldn’t do whatever you want to do. 18 But if you are being led by the Spirit, you aren’t under the Law. 19 The actions that are produced by selfish motives are obvious, since they include sexual immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, 20 idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, 21 jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that. I warn you as I have already warned you, that those who do these kinds of things won’t inherit God’s kingdom.
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. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the self with its passions and its desires.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
In the first-century Roman Empire, many believed a good life meant “do whatever feels good at the moment.” They viewed the actions and qualities the apostle Paul listed in Galatians 5:19-21 as part of, or at least side-effects of, having “fun.” They called it “hedonism”—”a general term for all theories of conduct in which the criterion is pleasure of one kind or another.” * It’s still popular today. The apostle Paul rebuffed hedonism, but also rejected the idea of other philosophers and religious teachers who said the key to a good life was a kind of self-righteous “goodness” (“all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse,” he said in Galatians 3:6-11). The real key, he said, is not following a set of laws, but the Holy Spirit working within you. The Holy Spirit, rather than your own selfish wishes (literally “flesh” in Greek), will direct and shape your life. He expressed the results of the Spirit’s guidance with the metaphor of “fruit” borne from inner reality, not outward effort.
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Compare the qualities listed as the results of following “your selfish desires” in verses 19-21 with the “fruit of the Spirit” in verses 22-23. Do you agree that the fruit of the Spirit produces a better quality of life than the preceding list? If so, remember: “The nine qualities Paul lists in verses 22–23 are not things which, if we try hard enough, we could simply do without help, without the spirit.” ** Which of the traits the Holy Spirit offers to grow in you are already most present? Which of them do you most want the Spirit’s power to grow in you? With gentle irony (and deep seriousness) Paul followed his list of the fruit of the Spirit with the phrase, “There is no law against things like this.” Why would God (or you) make a law against qualities that make life so much better? When have you let go of your own agenda, and found that the Holy Spirit gives you something better, deeper and more freeing than the things you used to think you wanted?
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, by your gentle, powerful presence grow your beautiful fruit to fill and guide me to that wonderful life against which there is no law. Amen.
GPS Insights
Shannon Starek
Shannon Starek serves as the Location Pastor at Resurrection Liberty. She loves to travel and has been to 49 states, 11 countries and lived in Vancouver, Canada for grad school! When not gallivanting all over the world, she lived in Liberty with her husband, Aaron, and two sons, Owen and Porter.
I love outer space. I have been known to drive to secluded places in the middle of the night to star gaze or to watch a meteor shower. It gives me a chance to get away, feel like I belong to something bigger, and find some “space”… metaphorically and literally!
Recently, after a hard day followed by an even harder conversation, I needed some space. Late that night I stepped out on my back porch to get away from it all. As I sat down, I looked up to the stars. I could see a few, but not nearly as many as I knew were there.
Even though I tried to carve out space, the conditions were not great. Too many streetlights in my neighborhood prevent me from seeing many stars. Too much ambient noise to truly feel silence. I craved the stillness and the quiet, but on this evening it was elusive.
And yet…as I looked up at the night sky, I began to see more and more stars. I noticed a tiny satellite making its way across the darkness. And as I sat there staring up, wishing circumstances were more ideal, better than this, knowing there was more out there than what I could see, I saw the brightest shooting star I have ever seen.
My mouth fell open as I stared in awe of what passed before my eyes. And in that moment, there in the space I had deemed “less-than,” I knew God’s Spirit was with me.
Sometimes we go through life searching for God’s Spirit in the big ways. But we are also reminded that God comes to us through these seemingly intangible gifts… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We think conditions must be “just right.” However, I am learning that we follow a God who guides us by the Holy Spirit… in the big, in the small, in the too bright, too noisy, star-gazing night.
I have always loved outer space. Staring at the stars helps me to realize my place in it all… I am but one person in this vast universe, and yet God knows me intimately and chooses time and time again to show me that.
© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* From https://www.britannica.com/topic/hedonism.
** Wright, N.T., Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians (The New Testament for Everyone), (p. 72). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.
