"For the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22

• Do I show love at all times? Am I joyful? Am I patient and kind? Do I exhibit goodness and faithfulness? Am I gentle, and controlling of my emotions and actions at all times?


• I wish I could answer yes, all the time, hands down. I guess I am SOME of these things, SOME of the time. How can I be ALL of these things, ALL of the time?


• My only answer is...I can't. I never will.


• You see, I alone cannot. But the Holy Spirit can. The verse does not say, "for the fruit of 'WENDY' is love, joy, etc." It pretty clearly states that these qualities are directly from the Spirit. So to try and master them on my own is just plain ridiculous. I'll lose every time.


• So I guess I should try and let the Holy Spirit fill me with His qualities. In the evening, when I look back over my day, and I see my actions being anything BUT those of the Spirit's...its pretty safe to say that I shut the Holy Spirit out. Closed the door right on his face.


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  Ok, so I just open the door and let Him in? Easier said than done. All of my old habits are pretty reluctant to die. My own selfishness, greed, anger. But when I do let the Spirit fill me, I feel only joy. When He's there, there's just no room for anything else. I can look back over the past few years, and can definitely pinpoint those times of pure joy, when the Spirit was alive and well within me.


• So it is my constant prayer (and the Holy Spirit is praying this with me...isn't that awesome?!! He's praying with me and for me!) that I can let go of those other things, and let the Holy Spirit enter in. I think I'll have to pray it every day for the rest of my life!