But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
It’s Loveuary… Hallmark’s term for February. Bring on the sappy, romantic story lines where two people start off sharing strong feelings of disdain for each other and end up falling in love as the movie wraps. Yup! I love Loveuary and all its sappiness. In a world where there is so much hate, give me a movie about sappy love any day of the week.
Yes, we could use a HOPE lot of love in this world. Love is a powerful emotion. In fact, love has been determined by various studies to be the most powerful emotion… one that is sacrificial, transformative, and redemptive. Now, that’s one powerful emotion! God, Himself is love. His character in its entirety is all about love. He loved us enough to create us in His own image and… when we got tangled up in sin, He sent His Son, Jesus, to sacrificially die for our sins so we can spend eternity in Heaven with Him. He created us, died for us, saved a place for us… all so He can spend forever with us… now, that’s a HOPE lot of love.
Jesus spoke to the power of love in Matthew 22: 37-39, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Jesus expressed that this is the greatest commandment, followed by Love your neighbor as yourself as the second greatest. We are to love God with everything in our being and then love our neighbors with all our loving being. Interestingly, the word love is used the most over any other word in the KJV Bible, with about 440 verses devoted to love. God is love, models love, wants our love, and wants us to love each other. That’s a HOPE lot of love to witness, feel, and share!
When we genuinely profess our belief in Jesus, we are indwelled with His Holy Spirit. As a believer, His Spirit lives within us prompting us to become more like Jesus, nurturing His Spirit’s nine attributes (or fruits, which I lovingly refer to as a fruit salad). In the verse from Galatians above, love is listed first. This isn’t happenstance… our God is a God of purpose and intention, organization and truth. No, it isn’t a mistake that love is listed first because the remaining eight fruits flow from the presence of God’s divine love in us. I just love how our God rolls!
If you want to experience a HOPE lot of love and share that HOPE lot of love with others, the remaining fruit salad ingredients are discussed below, creating a fruit salad that is comprised of love, made with love, and shared lovingly with those you connect with daily:
· Joy is defined in Biblical terms as a feeling of contentment, peace, and lasting happiness that comes from trusting God. True joy comes from within, not from external circumstances, no matter what comes our way. When storms of life come, we are not shaken because our joy is from our amazing God. The waves may crash into our boat, but under the surface, there is calm and quiet because we know He works all things for good. When we are in awe of God’s omnipotence and feel His presence, we experience comfort from within… resulting in a HOPE lot of joy that we lovingly share with others.
· The Bible defines peace as a state of harmony, tranquility, and safety. Peace in Greek means “to join or bind together that which was separated”. When humans first sinned, we were separated from God. Once we believe in Jesus, we are bound together by His Holy Spirit where we find peace in God’s promises, knowing they will be abundantly fulfilled. There is spiritual, relational, and emotional peace… peace with God, peace with peeps, and peace within. That’s a HOPE lot of peace flowing out of love for God.
· Patience (longsuffering) is the ability to endure delays and trials with love, faith, and HOPE in a positive outcome. God is certainly a HOPE lot of patient with all our imperfections, with Jesus modeling patience impeccably. Our love for God’s patience enables us to work harder to be a HOPE lot of lovingly patient with others.
· In the Bible, kindness is defined as compassion in action… a gracious way of showing love toward those we encounter daily. While we can easily share kindness with those who reciprocate, true kindness comes when we share a HOPE lot of love with those who we don’t know or those with whom we struggle to find common ground.
· Biblical goodness involves being generous and understanding to others. It is closely tied to kindness by building up others over oneself. Goodness is reflecting God’s nature and character and choosing to do what is right out of a HOPE lot of love for God.
· Faithfulness is Biblically defined as reliable, steadfast, and unwavering. No matter what comes our way, we know God has got us in His loving hands. We remain true to Him out of our gratefulness for His HOPE lot of love that He shows us every moment of our lives.
· Biblical gentleness (meekness) is not anger, revenge, or self-aggrandizement. Rather, gentleness revolves around tenderness and mildness. We show gentleness when we demonstrate a HOPE lot of love with people who are in need or in pain.
· The final fruit is self-control (temperance)… Biblically defined as the ability to be in control of one’s thoughts, desires, words, and actions. Self-control is actively resisting temptation out of a HOPE lot of love for God. As believers, we model self-control in all aspects of life to be more like Jesus, less like the earthly versions of ourselves.
Whew… there’s a HOPE lot of love and a HOPE lot of HOPE packed into His Holy Spirit’s fruit salad! While we fail many times over making this fruit salad, rest assured that each time we model even one of these fruits, we share a HOPE lot of love with others. Our goal should be to demonstrate as many fruits as we can as many times as we can to as many peeps as we can while also giving ourselves grace when our fruit salad tastes a bit off. Remember, God is love, joy, and peace. He is patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and in control. We can enjoy His fruit salad when our salad gets a bit mushy. God’s HOPE lot of love gives us a HOPE lot of HOPE, making an amazing fruit salad that is out of this world!
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