Month: September 2020

Micro-Sermon: Fruit of the Spirit – Patience

zoomdaddyLeave a comment

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

During my Freshman year of college, a prayer group I was a part of in our dorm all decided we needed more patience. So we prayed for patience. Next thing you know, we are all bogged down with so many responsibilities, we were at our wits’ end. What we neglected to realize is that patience is not gift; it’s a fruit.

Patience is not a feeling we muster in order to handle tough or busy times. It is a virtue that, like a muscle, is strengthened through use. We aren’t given patience so much as develop patience over time.

Of course, the Holy Spirit dwells within us and is ready to give us strength and consolation during times that try us. So with divine strength and joyful, hopeful attitude we can face tough times more easily, producing the fruit of patience to have on hand down the line.

Think of those proverbial old sailors or actual long-time military veterans you know. They often have developed a kind of inner strength over time that allows them to face new challenges as they arise. Similarly, those of us who travel faithfully alongside Jesus, who’ve face many a spiritual conflict with some success, we can draw on those resources of patience the Spirit has exercised in us when new trials come along.

So if you’re feeling weak in the face current challenges, check your spiritual health. See if there is already patience from prior spiritual victories that have built up a reserve to face what you’re facing now. If you sense your patience is insufficient to the task at hand, then pray for Jesus to strengthen you and grant you a sense of peace that surpasses understanding so you can develop the virtue, the fruit of patience. Be hopeful, for the Lord is working in you to bring about his good and perfect will.

Lord of all hopefulness, let the fruit of patience emerge in me to face the challenges of this day, and where I am lacking, strengthen and encourage me by your Spirit as I rest in your changeless love. Amen.

Micro-Sermon: Fruit of the Spirit – Patience

Micro-Sermon: Fruit of the Spirit – Peace

zoomdaddyLeave a comment

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

“Peace for our time,” is what Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared after ceding territory that Nazi Germany conquered in the run-up to WWII. It was a presumptuous statement (and a bad diplomatic precedent, as we all know now). So how is St Paul’s promise that the Holy Spirit might bring us peace any less presumptuous? When civil strife and foreign meddling via electronic media and hacking is on the increase, how can we legitimately promise the peace of God?

We need to keep some things in the forefront of our minds when we’re tempted to dismiss peace as an elusive pipe dream. It is important to remember two things about the peace that’s promised. First it’s multi-layered. Second, it is a peace that doesn’t originate in human effort.

The peace of God is multi-fold. There’s peace with him who dwells in our hearts. Then internal peace, serenity if you will. After that there’s external peace, the quelling of conflict. And those conflicts the Lord seeks to rectify can be among family and friends, in the community, the nation, or even global in scope.

But our Lord has a tendency to work from the inside out, from the smallest pebble outward into the ripples of influence in our closest relationships first before successive waves into other spheres. So the Spirit offers us the “peace that passes understanding”–a new relationship with the Triune God, no longer as enemies of heaven but adopted into the family of God. From there he works in our hearts and minds to bring us into that sense of peace and contentment that is not swayed by the ups and downs of this life. Then the Spirit begins renewing our relationships–in our homes, on our jobs, in our spheres of influence, and out into the broader world.

So when we see conflict, we must remember that not everyone is at the same place in their process of being brought into God’s peace. Plus, many people resist God’s peace. They reject his amnesty that frees us from sin and death through Jesus Christ. They create chaos to distract from their inner pains, thus rejecting any real peace within. They hold grudges with others, or others don’t do their part to move beyond forgiveness into real reconciliation. That’s simply the reality of living in a world where the compress of God’s redemption is offered, but not uniformly embrace or experienced.

That’s where the second reminder is handy. It is the Lord’s work, not ours. Were it a mere human endeavor, peace would never happen. As it is, we do see breakthrough moments where worries within and conflicts without pause, or even dissipate altogether. These serendipitous moments serve as a n encouragement to us when we might otherwise despair for ever seeing peace in our time. So be encouraged, the peace of heaven is a process and God’s in control of the process. There will be a day when all things a brought fully in the peace of Christ. Until then, let us cooperate with God’s grace to relish the fruit of peace wherever we find it.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Micro-Sermon: Fruit of the Spirit – Peace

Micro-Sermon: Fruit of the Spirit – Joy

zoomdaddyLeave a comment

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Joy. In today’s world filled with political, cultural, financial, and medical anxiety, joy can be elusive. Of course, it will remain elusive if we confuse joy with happiness.

There was a time period when many hymns described the Christian as “happy.” “It was there by faith I received my sight,/ and now I am happy all the day,” is the end of one old gospel chorus. That’s a very strange description. I have never been constantly happy ever. Even in good times, times of celebration and delight, I could detect waves of intensity in how good I felt. Happiness and joy, while they are described in almost identical terms in most dictionaries, are not the same thing.

Happiness is a momentary feeling of elation in response to something in the environment. It is temporary. It is dependent on external stimuli or situations. Whereas joy is an underlying state of contentment based on the grace and promises of God. It can be upbeat or subdued. It can be overwhelmingly positive or generally hopeful . It is less an emotion than a state of being, a character trait.

Of course, with depression on the rise, I don’t want anyone to think that such a psychological ailment is somehow sinful. That’s just as bad as Job’s friends blaming his afflictions on some underlying, unconfessed sin. One can be genuinely joyful and still suffer mental illness.

But then what is the point of joy if we can feel multiple things at the same time, good and bad? It is to serve as a spiritual anchor despite our emotional ups and downs. If we have a grounded sense of joyful hope–knowing that the Lord indeed loves us, has decisively tackled the problem of sin and death, and will keep his promise of a day when heaven will come to earth and we will be risen just like our Savior–then we have a handle to grasp when everything else in life is in flux.

It may seems carrion comfort to those who are battling the worst this world can throw at us without Jesus. But joy is the fruit that arises from God’s gift, the virtue of hope. And hope is all anyone can have when facing the future. We cannot know fully what will happen. We cannot totally control the outcomes of the course we’re on. But we know the One who knows all things and holds the future in the palm of his hands. And we can be confident, because he fulfilled his promises once before when our Lord Jesus rose from the grave! And that reality can give us a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Father, no matter the trials I face, let your hope produce the fruit of joy in me, so I might have the strength to face whatever comes my way. Amen.

Micro-Sermon: Fruit of the Spirit – Joy