Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Isn’t it great to know that we can have a huge amount of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control without any penalty? Paul’s letter to the Galatians says that when you have Christ in your life (the Spirit) you cannot help but to experience all of these wonderful feelings! And he says against having these fruits from the Spirit of Christ, there is NO LAW! You can have as much as you want.
Today let’s talk about LOVE. There are several kinds of love. I love chocolate. I love riding my bicycle. I love writing. I love speaking to groups for motivation and encouragement. I love my friends. I love my two girls. I love my husband. I love Jesus.
LOVE means “passionate about”. I am passionate about speaking to groups of women and encouraging them. But I am also passionate about my husband. However the LEVEL OF LOVE is different in each of these areas. If I had to pick between chocolate and my husband, I certainly would pick chocolate…………oops……….I meant, I certainly would pick my husband!! JUST KIDDING!! Of course I would pick my husband.
But I said “I love chocolate.” But you see it’s a different kind of love. And when faced with a decision between two things you are passionate about, the stronger LOVE trumps the lesser passion. I would certainly choose the love of my husband over the love of a chocolate brownie with icing! What does that tell you? It tells you I LOVE my husband with a very strong love.
So when faced with loving Jesus Christ over loving things of the world and doing things that are not in His will, ask yourself – if I had to pick, which would I choose? Jesus or the world? It’s black and white…………just like the chocolate or my husband. It doesn’t mean there isn’t good things about living in the world today. It just means – if you had a “do or die” decision to make, which one do you love the most? I hope the answer is Jesus.
Love for Jesus trumps all other loves and passions. Eternity with Christ trumps two minutes of pleasure in eating a chocolate brownie. Loving Jesus trumps the joy of riding my bike on a sunny spring day with no traffic and wind blowing in my hair. Loving Jesus trumps the excitement of encouraging women’s groups to be all that they can be. Loving Jesus trumps all the fun with friends and yes, even family. But the good thing is that Jesus allows you to enjoy all things.
And when you put Jesus first, the Holy Spirit lights up inside of you and you get the joy of showing LOVE to all people and all things …………… and yes, you may even get to eat a chocolate chip filled brownie with friends while sharing fun stories about your family right before you ride your yellow bike with the basket all the way home!
Come back tomorrow and we can enjoy some more fruit…………perhaps a little JOY!
