Faithfulness

Lamentations 3:22 "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end: they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness."
Hebrews 10:23: "For He is faithful that promised."

Picking up where we left off a couple of weeks ago, we were considering the Fruit of the Spirit as found in Galatians 5:22, 23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…". The fruit (or grape as we have referred to each of them) for this week is Faith, or Faithfulness. We use the word ‘faith’ to signify our confidence in God; the term ‘faithful’ is used to describe a person who is trustworthy. Some other characteristics of a person we call faithful would be reliable, loyal, dependable, one who keeps promises.

Jesus is our example of faithfulness. He promised not to leave His friends as orphans, and the Holy Spirit came, coming to each of us who are His children. He said "because I live, you shall live also." (John 14:19) and we have eternal life. In Hebrews 3:2 it states "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever". Jesus is dependable.

Faithfulness is one of God’s attributes, and it is an attribute He shares with us through the Holy Spirit. The book of Psalms is filled with thanksgiving of God’s faithfulness. We can manifest this Faithfulness also in each of our lives, as it is a ‘fruit of the Spirit.’

"Happy the man whose hopes rely
On Israel’s God; He made the sky,
And earth, and seas, with all their train,
His truth forever stands secure;
He saves the oppressed, He feeds the poor,
And none shall find His promise vain."
--Isaac Watts

"Great is Thy Faithfulness."

God's Indescribable Gift

II Corinthians 9:15 "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."
This being the week of Christmas, I have decided to put my blogs on the "Fruit of the Spirit" on hold and blog on God’s unspeakable, amazing, beyond our comprehension, gift. This gift was Jesus, all wrapped up in love.

God’s ultimate gift to us was His Son, Jesus. Of Himself, Jesus said "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water." (John 4:10)

Because of God’s wonderful gift, we can have other gifts such as the ‘gift of a relationship’. John 1:12 states that all who receive Him, those who believe in His name, He gives the right to be called the sons and daughters of God.

He also gives the ‘gift of His Grace’. Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by Grace you have been saved…" We have received the ‘gift of Eternal Life’, as according to Romans 6:23 "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

One reason I think of God’s gift as ‘indescribable’ and perhaps part of Paul’s thinking in II Corinthians 9:15, is that it is greater than we can grasp with our finite minds. Jesus was God, 2nd person in the Trinity, totally God. Yet in order to become the propitiation for man’s sin, He had to take on a human body. In doing so He had to become a human being. Now we have something beyond our imagination, something incredible, indescribable. He was still God, just as though He had never been man; yet He was man as though He had never been God.

And He did this as a gift to each of us. "For God so loved the world that He gave (this indescribable gift) His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on Him will have eternal life." (John 3:16)

So at this Christmas Season, as we open all our wonderful, no doubt expensive gifts, remember the most unspeakable gift of all, ours for the taking. This Gift is Jesus!!

Goodness

Goodness is the last of the three ‘action’ words found in our ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ from Galatians 5:22, which indicates we are functioning. Jesus told His servant "well done, good and faithful servant." His servant was working and producing. Jesus said a good tree would produce good fruit, and so will we when we acquire the ‘grape’, the fruit of goodness.

Psalm 23 states "surely Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" Goodness is one of God’s attributes, yet it could also be said to be the total of God’s attributes. By this I mean it reveals His incomparable righteousness, holiness and perfect divine character.

God shares some of His attributes with us and one of these that He does share is "Goodness". As His children we should conduct ourselves in such a way that God’s goodness is easily seen, and allow the Holy Spirit to develop this character in us.

A.W.Tozer states "the goodness of God is the drive behind all the blessings He daily bestows upon us." It is God’s Divine goodness that causes Him to be kind, and as an attribute, it is self-caused, infinite, perfect and eternal.

Before my faith’s enlightened eyes
Make all thy gracious goodness pass.
Thy goodness is the sign I prize;
O might I see thy smiling face:
Thy nature in my soul proclaim.
Reveal Thy love, Thy glorious name!
---Charles Wesley

"O Taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8)

Kindness

The second of the fruits (or ‘grapes’ as we are referring to them) in the category of Action, is ‘kindness’. In the King James Version of Galatians 5:22, it is referred to as ‘gentleness’. Gentleness is an aspect of kindness, but it does not adequately describe what the word ‘kindness’ fully implies.

In I Corinthians 13:4, Paul writes "Love suffers long", showing that love is patient. This is followed by "and is kind", showing that love and kindness work together. When an act is done in love it will show kindness. Or one could say if kindness is not shown no act is truly done in love.

To show acts of kindness does not cost money. It may cost in time and energy, but sometimes not even that. Maybe just a smile would be in order—how much time will that take? Have you ever noticed how many smiles you can bring by smiling as you pass people on the street or in the store? Or maybe just a word of encouragement, or a visit or a phone call. One never knows to what depths a simple act of kindness showing God’s love can go. It can even have a ripple effect in touching lives, where one little kindness will keep on spreading. It is a way of sowing seeds that can only bear good fruit.

God loves us and shows it through kindness. He asks us to do this also, as we learn to manifest the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’.

Patience

Another name for Patience is ‘long-suffering’, an old English word which is more picturesque than ‘patience’. This is the first of the three ‘grapes’ under the category of ‘Action’, found in our ‘Fruit of the Spirit’. These three action words are ‘patience, kindness; and goodness’, and are ways of reaching outward to others.

Patience is the will to endure and put up with others without complaining. Patience also is a quality of God, which we can appreciate, as He has been so patient with us. An example of Jesus patience with His disciples would be as He tried to get them to understand ‘faith’. He never gave up even when it seemed they just didn’t ‘get it’.

Romans 15:5 says: "Now may the God who gives the power of patient endurance…" So we know that our power to have patience comes from God, through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:3 Paul says that hardship produces patience; and in 12:12 he says to be steadfast and patient in suffering.

In James 1:4 it states "let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." We will receive patience when we rely on God alone. Even Paul had to learn this when he reached the end of his endurance with his ‘thorn’. God told him that His (God’s) Grace was sufficient. We need no one else but God through His Holy Spirit, and when we reach the point of relying entirely on Him, patience comes.

"And he said unto me, My Grace is sufficient for thee;
for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
(II Corinthians 12:9)

Peace

Peace—what is peace? In the dictionary it states that the peace is an undisturbed state of mind; absence of mental conflict, serenity. A true Peace, however, can only come as a gift from God and is made possible through the death of Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:7 states this peace passes all understanding, or as it says in the Amplified Version, it "transcends all understanding".

Peace as an attitude of the heart is given to us through the Holy Spirit. It is included as a ‘grape’ in our "Fruit of the Spirit". You have probably heard the saying that "ignorance is bliss." The peace we have in Jesus is not a peace caused by ignorance. It is a peace that comes even when we know life is hard, and everything seems to be collapsing around us. God’s peace is like a tree planted near a stream, where the roots go deep to receive underground water. Then when the storms come, the wind blows, the tree stands firm, and will have green leaves even in a drought.

When Jesus was preparing to leave His disciples and return to heaven, He told them He was going to leave His peace with them. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you…" (John 14:27).

Jesus is called the "Prince of Peace" and in Luke 16:33 Jesus says "in Me you may have peace". Isaiah 26:3 states "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee." (KJV)

When I make Peace WITH God, then I will have the Peace OF God,
and I will be AT Peace.

Joy

The Joy which comes to us as a result of the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ is much more than happiness. I always think of happiness or being happy as due to the happenings around us; but with joy, we can be joyful even when our heart is breaking.

Jesus said in John 15:11 that He wants His ‘joy’ to be in us; and in Nehemiah 8:10 "The Joy of the Lord is our strength."

Joy also is an ‘Attitude’ of the heart. When circumstances are tough, our happiness will cease, but we can still have joy. Our relationship with God is the foundation of our joy, it can be unending. Paul states in Philippians 4:4 (Amplified Version): "Rejoice in the Lord always (delight, gladden yourselves in Him); again I say, Rejoice!"

In I Peter 1:8 Peter says that the Joy for the Christian should be: "Without having seen Him, you love Him, though you do not (even) now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious joy!"

When we have the "Fruit of the Spirit", we will retain an attitude of Joy. Praise God!