Category: Devotional

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance – Gal 5:22-23

The underlying Greek word here is eirene: defined as peace, quietness or rest.

What is Peace?

Is peace the end of a work day when all is finally quiet?
Is it a nation not at war?
Is it financial security?

These might be peaceful things, but they all tend to get interrupted. They may not even ever fully happen.

God offers a peace that rises above all that. He sent his son to die for us. When Jesus completed that task, there was peace between God and man and salvation was within our grasp. (Romans 5:1-10)

Sources of Peace

Our Faith:
- Romans 5:1 …since we have been justified in faith, we have peace with God …
- Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
- John 16:33 …in Me (Jesus) you may have peace.
Our trust:
- Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,…
- 1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
- Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us.
We are commanded to seek Peace
- 2 Corinthians 13:11 “… Live in Peace….”
- Colossians 3:15 “Let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts…”
- Hebrews 12:14 “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy…”
No matter what our troubles, Jesus has conquered them and offers peace through eternal life with him.

Daily Bible reading for July 13

Ecclesiastes 7:15-29
Joshua 11-12
Jeremiah 6
Matthew 21:28-22:14
July 13, 2013
Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness (or Kindness)
But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance Gal 5:22-23 KJV

The underlying Greek chrestotes (khray-stot’-ace) derives from moral excellence and means gentleness, goodness, and kindness

(Note: The ESV and other versions use the word kindness so that’s how we’ll talk about it here.)

When are the right times for kindness? If we follow the world’s pattern, it might be as a response to someone else’s gesture of kindness. If not that, then it’s probably a matter of convenient or when we want something.

How much value is there in that type of kindness? Jesus didn’t think much of it:

if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. – Luke 6:33

if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? – Matthew 5:47

If we are following Christ’s example, kindness came from who he was, not what the other persons deserved or they were. We need to develop ourselves so we are kind…
- every time we have an opportunity (James 4:17)
- everybody all the time (Galatians 6:9-10a)
- especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ (Galatians 6:10b)
- even when we have been hurt (Luke 6:35)
The kindness to be able to live like this comes from deep within us, it cannot be superficial! The more we train ourselves to think about kindness, the easier it will be to show kindness in all of these situations. Think about it – God created you in his image so that you were ready to do good works so he could use you in his vineyard (Ephesians 2:10)

Daily Bible reading for July 12

Ecclesiastes 7:1-14
Joshua 10
Jeremiah 5
Matthew 21:12-27
July 12, 2013
Fruit of the Spirit: Goodness

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance Gal 5:22-23

The underlying Greek word here is agathosune defined as virtue or beneficence

If we really run with the metaphor of the fruit, we might consider goodness to be the skin or the rind. Goodness isn’t something that gets done, Goodness contains all the things we do. Look at Ephesians 5:9 KJV –

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth

It is difficult to get a gasp of what a “good” person is. The world looks at it as someone that does things that are socially applauded, but that isn’t a very good benchmark. They might even consider a person that does more good things than bad to be ultimately a “good” person.

The reality though, is that God is the only standard of good offered in the Bible. James 1:17 says that everything good is from above. Even Jesus told the rich young man that the only one good is the Father. (Mark 10:18)

This sheds a lot of light on what David sang about in the 23^rd Psalm. When the Lord is our shepherd we know that

… goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…

July 11, 2013
Fruit of the Spirit: Longsuffering
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance Gal 5:22-23

The underlying Greek word for longsuffering is Makrothumia (mak-roth-oo-mee’-ah). It is defined as – forebearance, fortitude, longsuffering, patience.

Longsuffering is Built Through Experience

James 5:10-11 – James points us to Job for an example of what Longsuffering means and the reward the Lord has in mind

Two reasons we need to be able to withstand situations that test us:
1. Patience leads to perfection leaving us wanting nothing:
  
  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. – James 1:2-4
2. Patience leads to the hope that is founded on God’s goodness and truth
  
  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. – Romans 5: 3-5
Let us be those that works our way through life’s challenges for the growth we achieve and the reward God has in store for us!

Daily Bible reading for July 10

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Joshua 8
Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
Matthew 19:1-20:16
July 10, 2013
How Much Forgiveness?
Rembrandt – Prodigal Son

Forgiveness is a tough work. It’s a Christ-like trait and a trait Christ told us to have.

To not exercise forgiveness so that it comes easy and a way of life, to not give someone another chance every time they ask is to test the grace that God has shown us.

The Master Teacher shows us this in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. (Matthew 18:21-35) Here he compares God’s forgiveness of insurmountable debt to how we treat relatively insignificant debt. Here’s the takeaway Jesus intended:
- In the same way that God is forgiving, he expects that from us (Matthew 18:33)
- A lack of mercy is considered wicked (Matthew 18:32)
- If we fail to offer mercy like God did, we can lose it (Matthew 18:35)
This isn’t just some command that God gave without demonstrating it himself. We can see throughout the Old Testament how quick he is to forgive his children. Literally every time they fell away he took them back – just for the asking.

That’s why God’s kingdom is such a good place to be.

Daily Bible reading for July 9

Ecclesiastes 5:8-17
Joshua 7
Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
Matthew 18
July 9, 2013
Keep Thy Foot

Influence Through Consistency

Ecclesiastes 5:1 KJV says to “Keep thy foot” when you go into the house of God. It’s a shame that later versions changed that. Keep thy foot is an expression of maintaining yourself in your usual pattern of life. In the context of Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Solomon’s instruction was to be godly all the time. Not just when you enter worship.

In fact the heading on my Bible in that spot say Fear God. That’s as good of a summary as can be given of the paragraph.

As we plan our day, remembering how we carried ourselves into worship and looking for ways to apply the lessons we learned is a great way to “Keep our feet” before others. We are after all, to be the salt of the earth by flavoring the world with our influence. (Matthew 5:13)

And to freshen up … going back often to God in prayer and reading from his word is a great way to keeping that godly attitude all week.

Daily Bible reading for July 8

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
Joshua 6
Jeremiah 1:11-19
Matthew 17

July 8, 2013