Joyful, Joyful

Many people know (and have memorized) the Fruit of the Spirit mentioned in the Book of Galatians. I am sure there are some who wonder if the order of the fruit mentioned holds any significance:

 

" But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Gal 5:22-23

 

Although I can spend yearrrrssss dissecting, discussing and meditating on these two verses, I want to concentrate on the second part of that fruit today - Joy.

 

The Greek word for 'joy' used in this scripture is χαρὰ (chara), which means "delight". In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, joy is "a feeling of great happiness".

 

I am overjoyed! My beloved boyfriend asked for my hand in marriage and I said yes. May you keep us in prayer and be joyful with us!

 

...and now, the fun begins....

Ten Days of Prayer (2015)

Saturday (Jan 17th) marked the end of the Worldwide Church's prayer initiative. At the beginning of each year, 10 days are carved out for the whole world to pray collectively on one theme. This year's theme was the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

 

It was a blessing to praying with my church family via conference call these past 10 days. It was also a focus on each part of that Heavenly Fruit per day. I am planning to go over each day again and spend some time going over the readings of each day. You can join me too! Go to http://www.10daysofprayer.org for all the resources.

 

Now let's look at the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is so amazing how this ONE fruit has so many components. Here they are as stated in the Book of Galatians (5:22-23 KJV):

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Longsuffering
• Gentleness
• Goodness
• Faith
• Meekness
• Temperance

One point that was brought up in our conference calls was that since its one fruit, we cannot have one (or some) parts of the fruit without the other. We should have all or none at all. That made me think. Do I exhibit one or more portions of the fruit? How about you? Am I loving but show no temperance? Would that mean that I don't have the fruit at all? (questions, questions, questions).

 

I just thought about another thing. You can't have some of the Holy Spirit either. You are either filled with The Spirit or not at all. So in the same way, we either manifest His Fruit (His Whole Fruit) or none at all. Let's pray that we may be filled with the Spirit so His Fruit can be seen in us.