My granddaughter recently had her first birthday. The day after her party, my daughter gave her the Bitty Baby doll that my mother-in-law had given my daughter for her first birthday. It was a huge hit! A mixture of joy and seriousness came over my granddaughter as she simultaneously loved on her "new" baby and tried to figure out how to take care of her. My husband and I had given her a doll stroller for Bitty Baby and she put her baby in it and started strolling her around the house like it was her job. She checked in every few minutes with her baby, and, even though it was nap time, she pushed her around for forty-five minutes. I think she would have kept going if we hadn't told her it was nap time. What a blessing to behold the delight and joy of a child!
In my recent newsletter, I spoke about love. Above I mentioned joy. Those happen to be the first two characteristics listed as the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. In the coming weeks, we will go through the fruit of the Spirit in my newsletter. To better understand them we will first look more closely at the context within Galatians and the Bible as a whole. Through the years, I've taught my children that while all of these characteristics (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) are things that non-Christians can have, as Christians, our version of them will be different because it is not by our own power that we have them. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit. For example, the world (and the flesh) says. "Love those who love you," but the Holy Spirit says, "Love your enemy." How do we get from the world's version to the Spirit's version? Let's contemplate those things together and see what God's word says about them. I've included some sections of scripture below to help you prepare for this study of the fruit of the Spirit. I encourage you to take the next couple of weeks going through these and other scriptures you find that relate. Be sure to use a dictionary for words you don't understand. Another good tool is to look up the cross-references in the inside margin of most Bibles. Before going into each fruit, let's look at the preceding chapters of Galatians. Pay close attention to what Paul teaches the church in Galatia (and us) about acting according to the works of the law compared to acting in faith. Look also at Romans 3:19-31 and James 2:14-26. These two sections may at first seem to contradict one another, but all scripture is inspired by God, and they actually complement each other. The "works of the law" refers to doing things (actions or works) to gain God's favor and salvation. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people had the Ten Commandments and other laws of Moses which God gave as guidelines to set them apart from the Gentile nations and help them know what righteousness was. Through the years, they began treating these laws as if they brought salvation. This was very similar to what the Galatians (before becoming Christians) and other Gentiles (non-Christians & and non-Jewish people) of the New Testament did. They had their false gods and believed if they served them in certain ways and with certain rituals, they could earn favors from the gods. As a missionary to Gentiles, Paul set out to help the new believers understand the transformational power of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:17-24 points Christians to holiness. Look up 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. Verse 4:3 mentions the work is for our sanctification and 4:8 reminds us that the Holy Spirit is the one prompting us to change. Growing our faith so that we reflect the fruit of the Spirit is not for our salvation or to draw attention to ourselves. It is part of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us to prepare us for eternity with God, and it is to bring glory to God--both because He deserves it and to point others to Him. You can sign up for my newsletter here to receive the rest of this study as we go through each fruit. | 
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