Fruit of The Spirit - Part 2

 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” - Galatians 5:22-25

Continuation on the series: Fruit of The Spirit...

Faith is the next one. It really means “faithfulness” and is different than “faith”.
Faithfulness means that you can be counted on. You are dependable.
It means you will do what you say.
It means if you’re married, you will be faithful to your spouse & family.
If you’re not married it means you will be faithful to the Word of God and abstain from sex until marriage.
If you’re working for someone it means you’ll be faithful to your employer.
It means you will be faithful to pay your bills when due.
It means you’ll be faithful to your country and vote, pay taxes, etc.

The next fruit is Meekness. Being “Meek’ isn’t the same as being weak.
Meekness is letting the Holy Spirit work in and through you without question, without trying to reason out the purpose of His leading.
The Bible says that Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth in his time. But he wasn’t weak. It took a lot of courage to lead 2 1/2 million complaining Jews out of Egypt.
In Matthew 11:29, Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Jesus says He is meek, yet He made a whip and ran the moneychangers out of the Temple.
He took on the Pharisees and Scribes, something unheard of in His day because of their influence in society and religion.
He created all things, and someday will be King, but humbled Himself and was born in a manger instead of a castle or mansion.
When on Calvary, He could have spoken one word and changed everything but out of meekness he “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross”. (Hebrews 12:2)
Meekness means when we walk in the Spirit we need to be submissive and not let our ego get in the way.

The last fruit of the Spirit is Temperance, or self control. We all may have to bite the bullet on this one but it’s one we all need because we have trouble controlling our tongues, trouble controlling our minds, controlling our flesh and, most of all, controlling our appetites.
If we do it on our own we usually find ourselves ‘out of control”. Only the Holy Spirit can bring us under control. He renews our minds and helps us to come into obedience to God.