“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law”
Galatians 5:22-23 (New King James Version)
I guess this was a couple of months after I first started driving a car…And as I was driving, the accelerator just went phzzzzzz ! In the sense, no matter how much I hit the accelerator the car was just not responding . By God’s grace the car slowed down by the side of the road instead of just freezing right in the middle ! J
I tried calling the mechanic but he was not picking up and it was a really hot day . So there I am with the car parked on the side of the road and I am sweating and trying to figure out what might be wrong with the car… “Did a wire get cut ?” , “Has the battery gone dead”,… And then a cop came by and asked me whats wrong … and I explained the problem to him … and he said “I think you are out of petrol” and then I said “No that cant be right …” And I quickly ducked back into the car and looked at the indicator and said “see there is a gap between the needle and Empty. Little did I know that it was actually empty …And that I had no idea that that was the maximum that the needle would go down. So I went got the fuel in a bottle and came back to the car and Vroooooom ! The car was A-Ok !
There are a couple of things here that I want us to think about …
1.Do we know how to read our indicator?
I didn’t realize the car was totally dry ! That’s because I didn’t know how to read the indicator correctly. I thought I still had some time before the needle would hit ‘Empty’ and before that I could fill it up ! Many of us are like that ! We know how we run when we are fully fuelled up in the Lord ! And unfortunately we have been becoming dry along the way … We might be thinking “oh I will make things right with God soon …. I still have time”…. Careful !! It might become too late . Every day we need to make sure that we are right with God…we need to submit ourselves entirely to Him…. Hurry up…before its too late !
2. What is our indicator showing ?
What if I gave you a choice of 3 cars one with the tank quarter filled with fuel, the other half filled and the third one completely filled ! And I say “You need to make a drive for 100km” … which one would you pick ? Even if it was just a 100km drive we would still pick the one which is completely filled ! Why ? So that if we need to go beyond the 100km we can !
What is your indicator showing so that God can use you for His glory ? Will He pick us ?
I love this verse… We read in verse 16 “I say then : Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”. And what is the fruit of the Spirit ? Remember it is fruit (singular) not fruits ! . So if we say we walk in the Spirit this is the fruit we ought to bear “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control “…If even one of these elements are missing then we are not bearing fruit !! Its as simple as that … Would really like to talk about each of these…but will try and keep this curt and end with a couple of examples…
Faithfulness – Are we giving God our First & our Best ? Growing up I would always see my dad do just one thing first in the morning … Sit with the word of God. He would finish his bath and be all fresh and he would just enjoy reading the Bible… As a kid I used to wonder why would my dad’s face be just so lit up when he reads the Bible… Now I know…. There is joy in His presence … Its amazing just to say “Lord nothing of this world matters to me…I want to come to You first before I give my time or energy to anything or anyone else”
Gentleness (Meekness)…Self-Control … Does it show in the way we drive ? J Or is it that a moment that someone zips in front of us that we cant stand it and zoooom way ahead of them ? Does it show in the way we talk ? …. Are we bearing fruit ?
God Bless
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