Want to learn more about Fruit of the Spirit? Use these Bible Studies for personal devotion, group Bible studies, or teaching a church class. Below are links to the lessons in this 13-part series.
Would you love it if you could call Jesus on the phone
and discuss with Him whatever is on your mind? Uncertain about how
to handle a situation? Just speed dial His number! Christians
sometimes lose sight of the fact that Jesus sent His Spirit to be
with us after Jesus returned to heaven. We cannot live a proper
Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit. This series of
lessons is about the result of having the Spirit in our life. Let’s
dive right into our study of the work of the Holy Spirit!
A song says “love is all around.” If true, it sounds
wonderful, right? Imagine a world in which every one showed a loving
attitude to you. Love is a top priority in the Kingdom of God. But,
what it means, and how we show love are difficult issues. Not
difficult because God is less than plain on the subject, but difficult
because of our selfish hearts. Let’s dive into our study of the Bible
and learn more about the connection between the power of the Holy
Spirit in us and love!
Is life a little bit discouraging? You get up each day
and go through the same routine. Then you go to bed. The next day
you do it all over again. Sort of like a rat on a treadmill. Would
you like a little more joy? Our lesson this week reveals how a
Christian can have joy not only in everyday life, but also in
difficult times. Let’s jump right into our study and discover the
Bible’s secret to joy!
Galatians 5:22 tells us that another fruit of the Holy
Spirit is peace. Is your life peaceful? Are you at peace with your
spouse? At peace with your children? At peace with your boss? At
peace with your health? How valuable is peace to you? What would
you pay for it? What do you think it would take to bring peace into
your life? Let’s jump into our study of the Bible and discover what
it teaches us about obtaining peace!
Galatians 5:22 tells us that another fruit of the
Spirit is patience. I have lots of things to do and I do not like to
waste my time unless the goal of my activity is to relax and “waste”
time. How about you? Do you see pointless wasting of your time as a
gift from God? What if I told you that “longsuffering” is another
way to translate this word patience. Do you want to be suffering?
While I was doing more research on what the Bible really meant by
“patience,” what I found were texts on endurance. The New Bible
Dictionary defines patience as “restraint in the face of opposition
or oppression.” That sounds like a cross between suffering and
endurance, rather than wasting time. Let’s plunge into our study of
the Bible and learn more about God has in mind with the gift of
patience!
Galatians 5:22 tells us that another fruit of the
Spirit is kindness. How much do you appreciate it when people are
kind to you? In the rough and tumble of life, I notice and
appreciate kind people. If you continue reading beyond the list of
the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians, you come to Galatians 6:7.
That verse tells us that we reap what we sow. By being kind to
others, we cultivate kindness towards us. The question is, how do we
become kind? Let’s plunge into our study of the Bible and learn more
about God’s gift of kindness!
Last week, I heard a speaker talk about the time after
you end your schooling. In general, I liked being in school –
especially college. It was fun to learn. It was great to be in
charge of your own schedule. When grades came out you had feedback
on the quality of your work. What happens after that? The speaker
asked us to imagine that after college we were actually expected to
do something with what we learned! Imagine that! If you regularly
read these lessons, you are in “college.” We are learning about what
the Bible says. Our study this week is about actually doing
something about what we learn from the Bible. Let’s dive right in
and learn more about goodness!
Imagine parents whose children repeatedly rejected
them. The children even went so far as to claim their parents had
died (when they had not) and then asserted that they were children
of another couple! One day the real parents lost their lives
rescuing their ungrateful children from a fire. That is a picture
of faithfulness. That is the picture of what our God has done for
humans. As followers of God, what does He expect of us when it comes
to being faithful? Are we called to be firefighters? How do we get
to the point where God calls us (Matthew 25:21) a “good and faithful
servant?” Let’s jump into our study of the Bible and find out!
Raspberries are my favorite fruit. Although I like all
common fruits, I faintly recall an exotic fruit I did not like
because of its bitter taste. If I had to rank the fruits of the
Spirit, meekness would not be my raspberries! Consider Jesus’
statement in Matthew 5:5 that the meek will inherit the earth. How
can that be right? I thought it was the aggressive and hard-working
who were successful. I’ve never read a self-help book that suggested
meekness as the road to success. A further problem with the idea of
being meek is that most translations (including the NIV) translate
the Greek as “gentleness,” rather than meekness. What does it mean
to be “meek” when dealing with the world? What does it mean to be
“meek” when dealing with fellow Christians? Let’s explore these
mysteries and this unpopular fruit by diving into our study of the
Bible!
For just a moment contemplate Galatians 5:22: “But the
fruit of the Spirit is … self-control.” Isn’t this a logical
contradiction? The “Spirit” is the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit. If God
is giving me control, how can it be called “SELF-control?” Does the
Spirit give me big muscles and then send me off to control myself?
Clearly, the people who argue that my works are important, are on to
something here. What, I’m not sure. As always, let’s dive into our
study of the Bible and try to figure out what this self-control
stuff all about!
Each week we have been going through the list of
Spirit fruits found in Galatians 5:22. Last week we came to the end
of the list in Galatians, so you might be wondering where we found
yet another Spirit fruit? We found it on the “light tree!”
Ephesians 5:9 says “for the fruit of the light consists in all
goodness, righteousness and truth.” In the grocery store, the fad
for some time now has been “light” food. This is the food that is
supposed to be more healthy for us. Let’s jump into our study of the
Bible once again to find out what it means to have a “light”
spiritual fruit, the fruit called righteousness!
Toby Keith sings a song containing this line, “I wish
I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.” Is that your view of
life? Something unpleasant has happened and you wish you had never
heard about it? Or, is knowing the truth always better? The Bible
presents an amazingly truthful account of its Old Testament heroes.
This suggests that it is always better to know. On the other hand,
Paul seems to suggest that being completely open is not always the
best approach. In my life, truth comes in two packages. One is truth
about God, salvation and the operation of the universe. The other
is truth about my life and the truth about the lives of others. I’m
sure I want to know the truth about God. As to the truth about me
…. Let’s jump right in and explore what the Bible has to teach us
about truth!
Have you ever heard of “hurry sickness?” In the United
States we have all sorts of illnesses which are not considered a
traditional illness. Hurry sickness is one of these fake illnesses,
and I have it. I’m always in a hurry to finish whatever it is I’m
doing. Get it done, move on to the next task. Whenever I’m driving,
I’m in a hurry. We will be driving to the airport to pick someone up
and my wife will tell me to slow down because we will arrive too
early. I know this is true, but find it hard to accept that advice.
This is the last in our series of studies about the fruits of the
Spirit. Our study of the Bible this week suggests that the quality
of our journey, rather than hurrying to heaven, is of most concern.
Let’s dive into our study and find the cure to spiritual hurry
sickness!
