“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.”
I was having a conversation over a cup of tea with a friend yesterday morning. We often talk about our faith, Jesus, Scripture, and our relationship with God. This time we touched on the Holy Spirit and how amazing the impact of the Spirit is in our daily lives, which then brought us to consider the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Neither one of us could remember all of them, which frustrated us a little. Now memorising Scripture isn’t the most essential thing to Christian practice, but I think knowing the fruits by heart helps us in our understanding of the Holy Spirit and the qualities we reflect when the Spirit works in our lives.
These qualities and graces are generated in us when we live in the Spirit, but for this to happen we must open ourselves to the Spirit’s power, and the wonderful thing about the fruits of the Spirit is that they move outwards to help and care for others. They lead us to the perfection that Jesus has called us to attain, and naming the fruits in words that are imprinted on our hearts raises our awareness of the behaviour we adopt each day, particularly in dealing with those around us, whether they be friends or strangers. Are the fruits of the Spirit expressed in your life? If we get to know these nine attributes and remember them, they will become a part of our emotional and psychological blueprint, and the plan for our lives as we live in the Spirit each and every day.
Tell Out My Soul 
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