But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature together with its passions and appetites. (Galatians 5:22-24 AMP) The result of God's presence within us is always going to produce 'fruit' that is different than the way we were living prior to saying yes to Jesus. The sinful nature (with all of its passions and appetites) need no longer control the way we live. The choices we make each and every day are the result of the 'new fruit' that is being produced within. One of the 'fruits' that popped out at me this morning while reading through this passage was PATIENCE. I put that in all-caps because we often pray for it like it is an emergency situation ra...
If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. (James 1:5 AMP) Who is it that gives? God himself. Who is it who asks? Us. What do we ask for? Everything we know or imagine we will need. When do we ask? Usually when we need something. What do we neglect to ask for? Wisdom! Who is wisdom? Jesus. When we ask for wisdom, we are asking for Jesus to become more real to us in the moment, bringing clarity to our situation, and giving us insight we wouldn't have otherwise. It isn't that we are praying for more of Jesus - we already have all of him. We are praying for more evidence of him in our lives. Let him ask - those words are the crux of the issue. We have not because we ask not (James 4:2). We need to ask for wisdom in life's moments because we don't possess all the wisdom to navigate through them wisely 100% of the time. Sometimes we act ...