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Wednesday—May 29 • Priceless Gifts
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22, 23, nlt What if I were to tell you that you could have everything in this world you ever dreamed of, but in order to receive it you would never be able to experience any of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Would you be willing to do it? What if you could keep half of the fruit of the Spirit? Let’s say you could have love, joy, peace and patience, but you couldn’t have kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Would you be willing to do it? What if
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you could have love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, but no peace, no joy? Just take any one of the fruits of the Spirit and think about it. Can you imagine what it would be like to have $1 million or unlimited income and never have any peace? Or love? Or kindness? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are priceless gifts that make life worthwhile. MIMBS 5 Spend a few minutes thanking God for the fruits of the Spirit. Which of these fruits do you need to allow God to cultivate in your life? Daily Reading: 2 Samuel 14:1–15:22, John 18:1–24, Psalm 119:97–112, Proverbs 16:8–9
Thursday—May 30 • Filled Up?
The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. Galatians 5:17, nlt So, you have your quiet time in the morning and you are very aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit, right? Then you start driving to work. What happens? You get cut off in traffic. You lose your temper. You get to work and your boss gives another person the recognition you deserve and you’re just really, really ticked off. You were aware of the Holy Spirit a minute ago and now, all of a sudden, you are leaking. There are two forces working in us all of the time. Even when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, our human nature is there and leaks out from time to time. We can read our Bible, pray, serve others, love our
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families, and teach Sunday school. We will still have failures and will still blow it. We can find comfort in the fact that even the apostle Paul struggled with the same two forces in himself. He says in Romans 7:15, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate” (nlt). MIMBS 5 How have you blown it this week? If you did, confess that to the Lord and ask for His grace and forgiveness. Daily Reading: 2 Samuel 15:23–16:23, John 18:25–19:22, Psalm 119:113–128, Proverbs 16:10–11