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God has gifted all of us uniquely. Some are naturally calm and peaceful, while others can demonstrate patience and mercy that practically defies logic. One may have incredible self-control, while another demonstrates an endless amount of love to others. Although all of us may excel at something, it’s easy to look at what we lack with dismay (or as an excuse), saying things like “That’s just not one of the fruits of the Spirit I’ve been given.” But we can’t lose hope, because through Jesus Christ we all have each and every description listed in that famous Galatians passage.
Counting fruit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
When we sin, we often want to know why. Why did we give in to a bad habit? Why do we have these inappropriate thoughts? Why are we harsh with our words? Whether we want an excuse or have simply run out of ideas, many of us will look at this passage and count off the fruits we don’t have.
However, there’s something here we can easily miss. This passage doesn’t say the Holy Spirit gives us different kinds of fruit. Rather, the language here points out that all of these qualities are part of one thing – the fruit of the Spirit. It describes it as a single thing with a multitude of traits inside of it.
When Christ pays our sin debt, we are given the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. His purpose affects almost every area of our lives, but one critical role He plays is in our sanctification. In other words, the Holy Spirit guides and molds us to be more and more like Jesus Christ and less like our former selves. He helps us become who we are supposed to be – holy people of God who pursue their savior.
Part of that process is this fruit of the Spirit. Over time, if we pay attention, we will notice that we become more and more drawn to these good things, despite the pleasure-obsessed sin nature that we fight against daily. Many of us don’t demonstrate these qualities as we’d like, but the Holy Spirit is still slowly, patiently cultivating them within us.
So why does it often feel like we still lack some of these traits?
Asking for good gifts
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you… If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7, 11)
Describing God as our Father is no light matter. Here, Christ is making a beautiful comparison to how our perfect Father responds to His children. God isn’t just a being of immense power – He’s a loving and caring Father who wants only good for His children.
Yet as many of us know, children don’t always know what’s best for them. Just because they ask for something they think will make them happy doesn’t mean it’s what they need. Just as a good parent tries to separate needs and wants, so too does our perfect Heavenly Father know how to filter our requests between short-sighted wants and genuine needs. But first, we need to acknowledge who gives this fruit.
Asking with the right motives
Our first step in seeing God grow this important fruit in our lives is to ask Him for it. Yet many of us pray for years and still feel like we’re no better than we were before salvation. If God wants to give us these good things, why isn’t He answering our prayers?
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:3)
It’s important to examine our hearts. Why do we want things like patience and self-control? Is it because lacking them makes us feel weak, embarrassed, or ashamed because we hurt ourselves and others? If so, then if God were to fulfill those desires, all He’s doing is making us feel better about ourselves. He would feed our pride because we would have one less reason to feel bad about ourselves.
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Instead, our hearts and motives need to be facing the right direction. As Christians, we want to magnify the greatness of God. We want to hate sin not because of how it negatively affects us, but because of how much our God hates it. We want to kill sin and see fruit grow because it will show how mighty and amazing our God is. Asking for the fruit of the Spirit has nothing to do with us and everything to do with wanting to love and pursue Jesus Christ even more.
Asking with faith and patience
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
It’s almost humorous that part of this much-needed fruit is patience. So often, we beg God to keep developing joy or peace within us, and despite our God-honor motives He still seems so silent. It can be so difficult to struggle with anger or addiction, seeing it hurt and destroy everything around us. Why is God allowing this?
Before we can understand that, we need to believe that there are certain things about God that must necessarily be true. God is…
- All-knowing
- All-powerful
- Loving
- Good
- Merciful
- Wise
- True
If we’re honest, knowing these things about God is what makes our lack of progress so frustrating! We know He could instantly change us, yet He doesn’t. However, it’s these very traits that are our greatest comforts when we feel as though we’re stuck in a rut.
God shows us throughout the Bible that He’s very good at playing the long game. How many times did Israel spend decades suffering, all while God had a greater plan in mind? God never abandoned them, forgot them, or had His plans foiled. Everything that happened was done in His perfect timing. With the benefit of hindsight, we can often see why God’s long plan was more perfect than something more immediate.
Likewise, God doesn’t just snap His fingers and immediately change us. No doubt we’d all like to instantly have the desire to sin removed so that we could dedicate every moment to loving and serving Him. And indeed, there are some amazing stories of lives that change in an instant.
But for most of us, that’s not how God has chosen to work. For reasons we may never understand, God slowly develops all aspects of our spiritual growth over the course of our entire lives. Some of us may be naturally patient or kind while still struggling with self-control or peace. That doesn’t mean that we’ve only partially succeeded in those good things while remaining failures in our weaker areas. Rather, God uses our weaknesses far more than our strengths.
It’s nothing for a naturally-patient person to be patient. It’s a far greater testimony to the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit when a person puts their love of pornography to death after God spends years guiding them towards hating it. That person is then amazingly equipped to bring glory to God through their testimony, their ability to guide others with similar struggles, or any other way God chooses to use their lives for His ultimate glory.
All we need
The truth is that none of us lack any fruit of the Spirit. God is growing all of those qualities in us, but some are likely to be more immature than others. But praise God that He’s not content to let us stay immature. When we ask for the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we must also trust that a good and loving God will answer. He may not answer now, and He may not answer in the way we want Him to, but He will absolutely answer.
However, God has a far greater plan in mind than we could hope or imagine. And if God is as incredible as we know He is, then we can rest in faith and know that He will bring things about in His perfect timing. All we can do is keep seeking Him, loving Him, and centering our desires around bringing glory to our good and perfect Heavenly Father.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5)
