By their fruits you will know them

 

Therefore by their fruits you will know them.  --Matthew 7:20 NKJV

I have found that it is good for my prayer life to list the attributes of God and thank Him for who He is before I bring my petitions to Him.  This practice gets my mind focused on Him instead of making my prayer sound like a grocery list.  It is much better to acknowledge who God is before we bring our petitions to Him, as it gets the focus off of ourselves and gives us reason to praise Him.  

Psalm 22:3 days, "But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel."  Other translations say, "He inhabits the praise of His people."  To me that means the more I praise Him, the easier it is to submit to His lordship, to put my own needs second after He is worshiped and adored.  He must increase; I must decrease (John 3:30). 

This week as I began my prayers with acknowledging who God is, it dawned on me what it means to be filled with the Spirit.  God is love (1 John 4:8).  He is our peace (John 14:27).  He is patient with us (usually translated "long-suffering", from the Hebrew word chesed; see Lamentations 3:22-23).  The more I prayed the attributes of God, the more I was led to Galatians 5:22-23.  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Having grown up under the law, I always thought that the metaphor of fruit meant our works.  "Actions speak louder than words" is the trite way of saying what we do speaks more loudly than what we say.  However, if we are fruitful Christians, it is not our works that will be remembered.  What sets us apart from the world is how much like God we become.  This is our mission, our purpose, and hopefully our legacy.

God is love; the fruit of the Spirit is love

We all know John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."  The love of God is vast, unmeasurable, and deep.  Tim Keller said, "To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.  To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.  But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God."

By the same token, if we belong to God in Christ, then the Spirit of God will produce in us the same selfless love.  John 13:35 says, "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.  1 John 4:16 says,"So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."

Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14-19:  

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (emphasis added).

Paul told the church at Colossae to "put off the old self with its practices."  A bit later in Colossians 3:14 he says, "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."  Jesus said:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39)

If we love God, we will love other people.  Loving others is one way we can manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

The joy of the Lord is my strength; joy is the fruit of the Spirit 

Nehemiah 8:10b says, "And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." 1 Chronicles 16:27 says, "Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His dwelling place. (KJV)"  Wherever God lives--in heaven, in the Tabernacle (Church), in our hearts--there is abiding joy.  

There seems to be a connection in the Old Testament between strength and joy.  God is all powerful.  Isaiah 40:31 says, "Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  This is something to rejoice in. Psalm 16:11 says, "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Philippians 4:4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say, rejoice!"  The word rejoice means to feel or show great joy or delight.  Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."  If we are filled with joy, we cannot help but rejoice.  When the joy of the Lord bubbles out in our words and our actions, the world cannot help but take notice.

Of course we are to feed and clothe those in need, for that is a commandment of Scripture.  The point, however, is not just meeting physical needs.  Romans 14:17 says, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

The peace of God is unmatched; the fruit of the Spirit is peace

C.S. Lewis wrote, "God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing."  Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication s with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (emphasis added)."

John 14:27 says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not  your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."  Bible scholar and commentator J. I. Packer writes, "The peace of God is first and foremost peace with God; it is the state of affairs in which God, instead of being against us, is for us. No account of God's peace which does not start here can do other than mislead."  If we are filled with the Spirit, we will have this peace that passes the understanding of the world, and the world will be drawn to Him because of the perfect peace within us.

Isaiah 26:3 says, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."  Colossians 3:15 "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful."

Jonathan Edwards said, "God's love is an ocean without shore or bottom."  According to the children's song, "I've got peace like a river...Love like and ocean...Joy like a fountain."  We can't have any of this without God's Spirit indwelling us.  These are attributes of God, and of us when we abide in Him and are bearing fruit.  When I begin my prayers listing God's attributes, I am encouraged to exhibit the same qualities in my own life.  That's one way to help get my wishes and desires in line with God's will for my life.  After I let my requests be made known to God, I end my prayers praising Him for his grace, goodness, faithfulness, and mercy.  Next week we will continue our study of the fruit of the Spirit and the overlap with God's qualities and attributes.