Faith Filled Family Magazine December 2016 | Page 62

gentleness to someone who is
coming against us. Not that we
allow people to walk all over us,
rather we simply resist the urge
to allow anger to boil over influencing our behavior, but instead
the fruit of love flows out of us in
challenging circumstances and
we, as God’s children, are led by
the spirit and not the flesh (Rom.
8:14).
How is this even possible? It’s often easier said than done, which
is precisely why we need the
fruit of the spirit to abound in our
heart and life. It is then that the
nature of Christ, the fruit of His
Spirit, overflows in and through
us.
“Remain in me, as I also remain
in you. No branch can bear fruit
by itself; it must remain in the
vine. Neither can you bear fruit
unless you remain in me. I am
the vine; you are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing.” —
John 15:4–5
As we spend time with the Lord
Jesus in our everyday we encounter His presence. Worship
isn’t just for Sunday mornings or
special Christmas programs; we
were created by God to worship
Him with our life in our everyday.
Your Creator God intricately knit
you together in your mother’s
womb dreaming of the relationship you would share. He created for fellowship with Him. This
is a lifestyle not a semi-annual
event. But we must choose it.
We choose to spend time in the
word daily. We choose to take
the plunge diving head first into
the secret place with Him and

suddenly, from there, the very
nature and attributes of Christ
begin to shine through us. The
fruit of the spirit becomes evident in our everyday life.

over issues, but it is imperative
that as believers we remain unified in Christ. Settled in the gospel—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus, bearing
with one another in love. We
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, should make every effort to keep
joy, peace, patience, kindness, in unity of the spirit through the
goodness, faithfulness, gentle- bond of peace (Eph. 4:2–3).
ness, self-control; against such
things there is no law.” Galatians Remember: “There is one body
5:22–23
and one Spirit, just as you were
called to one hope when you
Now, when faced with a situa- were called; one Lord, one faith,
tion that once spurred on anger one baptism; one God and Fain your heart you’ll find yourself ther of all, who is over all and
operating in gentleness and self- through all and in all,” Ephesians
control. Where did that come 4:4–6.
from? It’s the fruit of the Spirit.
As you grow in God through In the moments before His cruabiding in His presence you’ll cifixion, Jesus prayed to the Fafind that grief is replaced with ther for Himself, His disciples
the fruit of joy. Your short temper and for all who would believe in
is replaced with patience. Your Him through their message—He
tendency to run when things get prayed for you and me!
tough and back out of commitments is replaced with this deep “My prayer is not for them alone.
desire to remain faithful to your I pray also for those who will beword.
lieve in me through their message, that all of them may be
This is what it looks like to be- one, Father, just as you are in
come the new creation in Christ me and I am in you. May they
Jesus where the old is gone and also be in us so that the world
the new has come. No longer do may believe that you have sent
you look, think or act in the ways me. I have given them the gloof your old self.
ry that you gave me, that they
may be one as we are one—I
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, in them and you in me—so that
the new creation has come: The they may be brought to complete
old has gone, the new is here!” unity. Then the world will know
—2 Corinthians 5:17
that you sent me and have loved
them even as you have loved
This is true of our relationship me.” —John 17:20–23, NIV
with people in the world, at work,
in school and in our families and The cry of Jesus’ heart was that
it should also be true of our re- we be one as He and the Falationship with people in the ther are one. That we operate in
church—God’s family—our fel- such unity over the message we
low believers! It can be so easy share that the world would know
for us to bicker with one another that Jesus is the Son of God be-