Galatians 5:22-23
In the sermon last Sunday, I mentioned that having a heart full of peace is an important weapon in our spiritual battle. So I’m going to pause our series on the Gospel of Mark and take a few weeks to consider how we can have a greater experience of peace. My plan is to take three weeks for this brief series.
In interest of introducing this theme, I want to point our attention in this article to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. One aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is peace, so it is very pertinent to our discussion. The fact that these virtues and internal attributes are “fruit” of the Spirit signifies that they are things that naturally grow when the Spirit is present in a person’s life.
The question before each of us is “how do we live in the presence of the Spirit in such a way that this fruit grows in us?” I don’t believe I can give a complete answer to that question in a brief article like this, but I do want to share an insight from Galatians 6 that I think is instructive.
In Galatians 6:8 we are told that “the one who sows to please the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” He quickly follows this by encouraging us to not grow weary in doing good, because we will reap a harvest in due time. In this passage I believe the Lord is calling us to seek to walk in ways that we know are faithful to His purpose in our lives by doing good to other people. These good things we do may seem very small and insufficient on their own. This is why they are like “seeds” that are sown. But God is faithful to take these small steps of faithfulness and grow them into something more.
So, how to we live in the presence of the Spirit? We walk in the paths where we know He is present, and we do so however small our feeble steps may seem to us. Where is He present? Paul indicates in this passage that we keep in step with the Spirit by doing good to other people … loving concern for other people is always going to be in step with the Spirit. He is present in such endeavors. So we walk those paths of loving service trusting that He will grow in us the attributes that such a path needs: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
I think we could also assume that the Spirit is present in the Word that proclaims the glory-filled truth about Jesus. So by filling our hearts and minds with that truth, we can trust that the Spirit will also use those feeble endeavors to grow His fruit in our lives, including the much needed peace that we are considering in this season.
May God bless, guide, and grow us as we sow to please His Spirit.
