Last week, the local morning news folks were bantering about New Year’s resolutions. One of them said that she does not make resolutions but instead selects a word to focus on for the year. This notion intrigued me, so I spent a few days pondering this concept. Would I choose words representing things I need to improve upon or words that change the troubled environment surrounding us? The possibilities seem endless.
LOVE is a powerful word that Jesus always wants us to work on. But it is so expansive that it can cover an expansive territory. I may need to select a word that is attached to love yet more focused.
Next, I turned to the fruits of the Holy Spirit found in Galatians 5 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All nine are counter behaviors to those that precede them in Paul’s letter – sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies.
A few on “the naughty list” jump out as things that need work in our spheres. Others are ships that have sailed in our society, and I don’t want to be someone else’s moral police. So the words where we could effect change are enmity, strife, rivalries, dissensions, division, and anger.
Since Jesus told us to be PEACEMAKERS (Matthew 5:1-12), we could work on one or two of the fruits of the Holy Spirit that can be connected to peacemaking. There are four to choose from: peace, patience, gentleness, and kindness; all can be used to combat those cultural behaviors that divide us. So ask Jesus to go into a day with you looking to display peace, patience, gentleness, and kindness; you will soon find yourself committing random acts of LOVE MISCHIEF!
Peace, Patience, Gentleness, and Kindness.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 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 5:20-23
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