“The Whole Fruit Basket”
 
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23 

I love this passage from Galatians, it is so positive. 
It is important to note why this well-known passage starts with "but". It is because previous verses talk about our "fruit" without the spirit of God. It lists things like envy, idolatry, hatred, envy and more. If we have accepted Christ we have his spirit, and so can be freed from these things and get his "fruit" instead.

The Bible is clear that God bestows different gifts to different people. Some are teachers, some healers, etc (I Cor. 12). That is NOT true of the fruit of the spirit. If we are in Christ, we get ALL of it, the whole fruit basket. We can't say "patience" (forbearance) is not my thing- we have all the fruit- we just may not choose to partake or use all He has given us. 

So, need a little joy, peace or self-control? I know I do. Time to reach into that "fruit salad" of the Spirit of God in all of us who are Christians.

Hungry for Him,

Angie Wahl