The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience is a Virtue…

by David Chadwick

Patience is a virtue… but it’s also a fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit are an all for one and one for all package deal. Once you abide in Christ and Christ in you, you will bear much fruit (John 15:5).

When we are abiding with Jesus, connected to the Spirit, we will operate in patience. The word patience in the Greek is makrothymia. It means long suffering or fortitude. It implies a willingness to be willing to wait in spite of what our eyes can see. In the Amplified Bible, patience is described not as “the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting.”

Patience is proven in a heart that trusts every minute and second to God’s perfect, providential plan. It is evidenced in a heart that is yielded to God’s timetable for everything.

As we learn to wait on the Lord and trust him in everything, our strength arises. Isaiah 40:31 says, “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Even in the midst of chaos and destruction, we can remain confident that God has neither abandoned us nor his world. As we remain in the waiting room of faith, God builds us and makes us stronger.

Do any of you lift weights? If so, you know that weight lifters are made stronger by lifting heavier weights. In the same way, followers of Jesus are made stronger by lifting heavier “waits.” Sometimes it is only in the waiting of God’s timing and purposes that our spirits become stronger and stronger.

Dear friends, did you know that we are in a war? We have been called by God to strengthen ourselves in the Lord, much like David did when he was in great distress (1 Samuel 30:6). David knew the fruit of enduring and being long-suffering. In doing so, we can run and grow weary, walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).

I pray for God’s Spirit to be enlarged in each of your hearts so that more patience would come to your souls!

The Fruit of the Spirit: “Peace I Leave With You”

by David Chadwick

The third fruit of the Spirit is peace.

The movie Sister Act 2 has an incredible scene where the nuns perform the song “Ball of Confusion” in a nursing home. Every time I hear this song, I’m reminded that the chaos of humanity has always existed. There has never been a time in history where the devil has not desired to release a ball of confusion all over the world. As the song says, “So, round and around and around we go. Where the world’s headed, nobody knows.”

But in the midst of chaos, Jesus entered the chaos of this world and said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

As God’s children, there are two aspects of his peace that we have access to when we are rightly and securely abiding in his Spirit.

First, we have an eternal peace of knowing that we are no longer at war with God. He has reconciled us to himself. We are no longer his enemies. He now calls us friends (John 15:15). This peace accord with God, signed and sealed with Jesus’s blood, is irrevocable. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can ever separate us from his love!

Second, we have a present peace that is available to us each and every day. Because of Jesus, his Spirit now lives inside of us. So, when storms come, we can now hear Jesus’s voice saying to us, “Peace! Be still!” (Mark 4:39). Like any good Father, God desires to be on the boat with us as we face the storms of life.

Jesus promises to be with us always. Forever. Until the close of the age (Matthew 28:20). He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6).

And now, we can approach the throne of grace any time, any place, as God’s friends. God’s peace now resides in us and because of Jesus, we are now at peace with him. From that place of peace, we can boldly ask him anything and know that he hears us and will answer our every prayer according to his perfect will.

I pray for the Spirit to give you more peace today and each day moving forward until Jesus returns.

The Fruit of the Spirit: Choose Joy

by David Chadwick

Joy is a choice. As our church’s worship leader says in one of the songs he has written, “I will choose joy!” This one doesn’t always come naturally. Without Jesus, it can feel impossible to walk in joy in the midst of this broken world.

Remember, where one fruit is present, all nine are present. They are interdependent. But I do love the order because love and joy walk hand in hand. Joy proves that our affections are rightly aligned with God’s will. Joy flows out of a heart that loves him.

When you are so intimate with the Father in heaven and his Son, Jesus, the Spirit gives our natural affection the joy of an intimate friendship forever.

Joy is not happiness. Happiness depends upon circumstances being good. Joy, on the other hand, has nothing to do with circumstances. It only looks at the Beloved, the one who has given us life.

That inward joy transcends all that’s going on around us. And simply rejoices that his plans and purposes are being carried out in our lives no matter what.

The joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Our joy is made complete by resting in the one whose joy was made complete in obedience to the Father in heaven (John 15:11).

How do you choose joy? By simply focusing on the One in whom you are abiding, resting, and remaining forever. Making sure your connection with Jesus is always secure.

The Spirit produces this joy. You simply choose to abide. And then pray for more joy from the Spirit in whom we abide.