Bible Reading Plan | Devotion for the week of April 17, 2022

Weekly reading: Galatians 5; Exodus 17-20; Psalm 107-108

Passages referenced: Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23

When I first learned about the fruit of the Spirit, I don’t think I was taught correctly. I was basically told that these were just more items to add to the list of what made someone a ‘good Christian.’ But these verses are so much more than that. Elsewhere in scripture, we do see qualities and characteristics we should strive for or try to imitate, but that’s not what the fruit of the Spirit is about.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.This list isn’t about what we do, but what God does in and through us. They are the fruit of the Spirit. They are what the Spirit of God produces in us.

Author Keri Wyatt Kent says that “the fruit, or result, of the Spirit working in our lives is that we become not just some but all of these things: more loving, more patient, more faithful, and so forth. This verse is not a to-do list for us to work through, but a description of the transformation that occurs when God’s Spirit begins to work in us.”

I appreciate that contrast between ’a to-do list for us to work through’ and ‘a description of the transformation [by] God’s Spirit.’ I think that’s a reminder we all need. So much of life is about striving, pushing, and setting and reaching goals. And that type of life is frustrating and exhausting. These verses in Galatians are the gentle reminder we all need that our lives are supposed to look different. We are to be guided by the Spirit. And when that happens, we see the Spirit’s fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

As author Richard Foster puts it, “the fruit of the Spirit is not push, drive, climb, grasp, and trample. Life is more than a climb to the top of the heap.” Let’s remember that as we seek to push aside the pressure we face to strive and achieve and instead embrace the freeing life we find in the Spirit. – Sarah Neel