Produced by the Holy Spirit

Friday, September 24

Produced by the Holy Spirit   

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Galatians 5:22

Once we’ve committed our lives to Jesus He comes into us by the power of the Holy Spirit and we can expect to be producers of His fruit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness (Galatians 5:22). As with any agriculture endeavor the fertilization and growth process can be sometimes difficult and lengthy. And with that any of these fruits can be difficult to produce. When we have been doing things our way for so long, it can be a challenge to turn life over completely to God for His pruning and use. What tends to happen is that we cover up the hurt with protective habits like defensiveness, withdrawing into isolation, prickliness, putting up barriers; all of which prevent us from developing into the people God wants us to be. When Jesus died on the cross He carried all our pain with Him, but in order for that to be effective in our lives, we need to allow Him into the hurt by forgiving the ones who have hurt us and allowing the pain to be released to Jesus.

This change can be a scary process as it means leaning into the Lord more than we are used to.

I want to encourage you, Jesus is trustworthy and will never let us down, no matter how many times our earthly friends have. The more we allow Him to take over in the hurting areas and bring about the changes He wants, the more like Him we shall become.

Prayer for today: Dearest Father, please give me the courage to surrender all into Your loving hands and enable me to learn to trust You more. In Jesus’ name I ask it, Amen.