The Fruit of the Spirit I Struggle with And How I Plan to Fix It

February 1, 2018

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

The Spirit and Human Nature

So I tell you, live the way the Spirit leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self-wants.  The sinful self-wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self. They are always fighting against each other, so that you don’t do what you really want to do. But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under law. Galatians 5:16-18

It clearly states if you read on in Galatians 5, that we are to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.

So what are the fruits of the spirit? Yes, they are listed above in my quote from Galatians 5:22-23, but what do they really mean? And am I living in them all? Are you?

  1. Love – an intense feeling of deep affection.
  2. Joy – a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
  3. Peace – freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility.
  4. Longsuffering – having or showing patience in spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people.
  5. Gentleness – the quality of being kind, tender, or mild-mannered
  6. Goodness – the quality of being good, in particular. virtue; moral excellence
  7. Faith – complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
  8. Meekness – the fact or condition of being meek; submissiveness.
  9. Temperance – abstinence from alcoholic drink. Self-control

Wow, all of this time I had no clue what temperance meant. I truly, honestly, thought temperance was dealing with, well… your temper. Hey, I’m sure I am not the only person on this planet guilty of thinking this.  I definitely don’t struggle with this one, which is a blessing since I totally had it all wrong.

Can you guess which fruit of the Spirit I struggle with? Meekness! Oh, that good ol’ submissiveness; ready to conform to the authority or will of others.

I don’t like being told what to do. Even at times when I am asking for assistance. Even at times when asking God for assistance as you know from last week’s How to Trust God Completely.

If you know me, I don’t like to complain about something and not have a plan for resolving it. So, of course, I’m not going to just say, the fruit of the Spirit I struggle with is meekness, okay bye, good day.

I am going to show you what I need to do to not struggle with this FOS (Fruit of the Spirit), and what you need to do to not struggle with yours. I am going to go to the source, that’s right, the good ol’ Bible.

As with everything in life, the answers are always in the Bible. You can learn how to have a great marriage, how to communicate, and in my case, how to exhibit meekness by going to God’s word.

I am going to use the Gideon Bible. Although it only has Psalms, Proverbs, and the New Testament. It gives you lists of verses to read when needing help in life. I went to Christian Characters for Godly Living in Today’s World and searched meekness. Check out my 4 part series on Christian Characters for Godly Living below.

If you don’t  see your exact FOS, check the definition I have above. And search for the character trait associated with that FOS. For example, if your struggle is goodness, look up good works. If your struggle is gentleness, look up kindness. If you don’t have a Gideon Bible, search for verses to read when needing (enter the FOS you’re struggling with) and get started.

James 1:21

So get rid of everything evil in your lives—every kind of wrong you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you.

1 Peter 3:15

But keep the Lord Christ holy in your hearts. Always be ready to answer everyone who asks you to explain about the hope you have.

Psalm 37:11

Humble people will get the land God promised,

   and they will enjoy peace.

Thanks for stopping by! Please subscribe to receive notifications of blog posts. See you Saturday!

xo Tish

P.S. Grow deep roots to harvest rich fruit! When your roots run deep, you cannot help but bear the fruit of the Spirit – Michael Beckwith

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