As usual it is always a pleasure for me to speak to you all through the pages of this blog. I am also humbled to hear from some mothers of how blessed they are from reading the blog as well as my weekly in touch e-mails. It appears that in order to comment on the blog itself you do need to have a g-mail account. If you do have a g-mail account please feel free to post your comments on the blog site so that others will have the opportunity to read them as well. If you do not have a g-mail account and do not wish to change your e-mail address, that is also ok. I would like you to know that regardless I do continue to thank my God for all of you.
For the next few weeks I would like to concentrate on us praying for the manifestation of the fruit of the spirit in the lives of our children who are saved.
I encourage those of you whose child or children are not saved to continue praying for their salvation. In addition to praying, please member to share the word of God with them. If you are not able to do so your selves please pray that someone will cross their path who will share the gospel with them. As you pray this prayer, please ask God to prepare their hearts so that the next time they hear the word of God they will receive it.
From time to time when we speak of the fruit of the spirit, it is always good to remind ourselves that we are talking about one fruit and not many fruits. In explaining this concept to others I usually ask them to imagine the fruit of the spirit as a tangerine. This one tangerine has a number of sections. Together each section makes up the whole fruit.
In the simplest of terms, we need every section of the fruit of the spirit for it to function as a whole. If one section is defective or missing the fruit becomes defective and is less effective, than if it was a whole fruit. If we were dealing with many fruits, we could easily discard what we do not want to be bothered with and still have whole fruits left. This is not so when there is only one fruit. The fruit of the spirit can be seen as those gracious habits that the Holy Spirit produces in the Christian.
Galatians 5: 22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
It is important that our Children walk in the Spirit so that they do not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal 5: 16-18). The manifestation of walking in the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit. It is not a coincidence that Love is the first piece of the fruit to be mentioned. It has been reported by some authors that this is so because Love encompasses all the other parts of the fruit of the Spirit. Martin Luther was reported as saying that all of the other 8 areas of the fruit of the spirit are just a description of what Love in action looks like. Love is a product of the Holy Spirit and not of our own efforts. We have the Holy Spirit and hence we have Love. What we need is to have manifested in every area of our lives.
The word Love is from the Greek word Agape, and is often presented in the scripture as an attribute of God or as a Christian virtue. Here it is used as a Christian virtue and is the only word in the Bible translated charity means love. Love is said to be the chief test of Christian discipleship (John 13:35; Mat. 5:44; I John 3:14). Agape love is a selfless love and it never stops giving and forgiving in spite of who has wronged us or treated us badly. It holds no record of wrong.
How should we Pray?
Father I thank you for (insert name or names). I thank you for the gift of Love in his/her/there life/lives. I pray that this love will be manifested so that others may see and realize there is a difference in them. Through this love they will be able to lead others to you. Father please help them to forgive those who have wronged them and in spite of how they may feel, they will keep no record of wrongs. In Jesus’ name, amen.
In His Service,
Vilma
