Days 4 & 5 - Week 56 - Galatians 5:22 "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."

I know this isn't usual for me, but this week was my Mother's 89th birthday celebration and we had our usual Mother/Daughters sleepover.  My mother won our Hearts tournament and stayed up with us until the movie was over (1:15a).  We had a wonderful breakfast time together and talked, drank coffee and just enjoyed the 4 of us being together.  What a blessing this is to be able to enjoy such a great time together! 

The celebration threw me a bit behind in my week, so I'm going to combine Days 4 & 5 so we can then move forward on to Week 57 on schedule. 
Day 4 - Goodness and Faithfulness
Characteristics 6 and 7 of the fruit of the Spirit are goodness and faithfulness.  How would you define goodness?  Just as we found that patience and kindness carried with their definitions a little deeper spiritual meanings than what we normally associate with them, I think we will find the same with goodness, and possibly as well with faithfulness.
The Greek word used in this verse for goodness is agathosune, meaning "uprightness of heart and life, goodness, kindness."  The same word is used in 2 Thessalonians when describing God's goodness, so again, we are to reflect a characteristic of God.  And what does God's goodness look like?  How can we define that?  The first thing that I think of when I try to put words to God's goodness is, total and complete...God is totally good, completely good, there is nothing in Him that is not absolute good.  Paul seems to be urging us to reflect this completeness in our lives in Romans 15:14...

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Now, my brothers, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.  

When we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we will convince others around us that we are also full of goodness.  They will see within us an absence of the malice of the world, and of the envy and greed that is shown by so many of our times.  We should exude goodness.  That doesn't mean that we should come across as "goody-two-shoes" (where in the world did that phrase come from, does anyone know?).  There is a vast difference between a person full of goodness and a person who can't stop telling you how good they are!  I believe a key ingredient of goodness is humility...without humility, a person can "act" good, but that's just what it is...an act.  True and complete goodness is not a human trait...it's a Spirit-given trait.

Faithfulness.  Do we need an explanation for this?  What's your idea of being faithful?  Maybe the simplest is just not being unfaithful!  Faithfulness is staying true to your vows.  Standing firm in your commitment.  Faithfulness is not wavering in times of trial.  We remain strong, anchored in our faith, allowing nothing to move us.  Faithfulness is driven from an absolute faith...a conviction so strong, a belief so grounded, that nothing can shake us.  That kind of faithfulness is not born into us through our natural birth, only through our rebirth through Jesus can we gain access to the ability to such commitment.  Faithfulness is grown in us through the Holy Spirit's work.

Day 5 - Gentleness and Self-Control

I love the pairing of the characteristics...gentleness and self-control seem to go hand-in-hand, don't they.  Have you ever seen a grown up throw a real fit?  It is anything but gentle and it certainly shows a complete lack of self-control. 

Gentleness, praotes in the Greek, is translated as meekness in the King James Version.  I prefer gentleness just because of the connotation of weakness that we usually associate with meekness.  But that is an inaccurate rendering.  Neither gentleness nor meekness indicate weakness...actually it takes a very strong person to restrain themselves into a consistent manner of gentleness.  In 2 Corinthians 10:1, Paul describes Christ as being meek and gentle...yet Jesus Christ exhibited unmatched strength of character and unparalleled fortitude.  Gentleness is the opposite of harshness, brashness and arrogance.  Gentleness is what allows someone to wash another's feet, or to offer a cup of water to someone who is thirsty, passed to them with a soft touch of the hand.  Gentleness doesn't demand any acknowledgement for its actions....gentle actions are driven by a heart that is tender.

Self-Control...I think there is a good reason that the characteristic of self-control is the last one listed.  The Spirit will never be able to completely exhibit its fruit in our lives until we completely relinquish our control of self to the Holy Spirit, and then when we do, we find that we gain a supernatural self-control.  For without the Spirit controlling our lives, we fool ourselves when we think we have control of our lives.  Without the Spirit, generally our lives are out of control!  We are running this way and that looking for fulfillment...reaching for the next "something" that will make us feel that we have mastered control over our lives.  We listen to the age-old lie of Satan whispering in our ears, "You can be like God."  We cling to our rebellion, striking out in all manners of over-indulgence and craziness.  All the while, God is ready to give us His Spirit to enable us to live lives that are Spirit-controlled.  The Spirit-controlled life allows us to live lives that exhibit all of the other characteristics that we've already discussed...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.  Live in the Spirit...allow Him to do His work in you, allow Him to control, and you will find your life being lived within the boundaries that bring you true blessing.

God is so good...He has given us His Spirit to produce in us all that we need to be complete, all that we need to be the creation that He intended each of us to be.  Praise Him!