fruit

When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: 

love, 

joy, 

peace, 

patience, 

kindness, 

goodness, 

faithfulness, 

gentleness, 

& self-control. 

Galatians 5:22-23



Notice that Paul did not say "the Holy Spirit might produce this kind of fruit in us, depending on our situation."


Nor did he say "the Holy Spirit might produce this one or maybe two of this kind of fruit in our lives but certainly not all of these because none of us are that perfect."


And he certainly didn't say, "Look - this is an impossible level of behavior - this is the ultimate, something for us to shoot for, but let's not kid ourselves... it's a tough world our there..."



No, he wrote it very plainly...

if... then...


Oh, btw...


If the Holy Spirit is in control, it would stand to reason that His power working through & in us, & His constant immediate presence in our lives, would be what would produce that kind of fruit in our lives...

not our puny & prissy little efforts to be all those things.


The trick is to give the Holy Spirit complete control of our lives.

And that scares us to death, because we just know that He will make us be & do something weird or distasteful.


I'm always kinda amazed at how stupid I am about letting God have control.

Who is better at running my life? 

The eternal, holy, all knowing, all powerful, wise, wonderful, who's very essence is love, God of the universes?

Or me?


Think about that...


Think about letting the Holy Spirit control our lives...