Living in the Spirit
July 8, 2016

Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:1-14

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. –Colossians 1:11-14

God is our source of wholeness. Made in the image of God, does it not just make sense that working to bring ourselves into alignment with that image is crucial for full actualization of the fruit  which blesses each of Christ’s followers? Experience says we can never change any other person. The only person we have any chance of changing is ourselves. We waste much time and energy in trying to remold and remake everyone around us while avoiding tackling the fractures in our souls. Honestly, I do not think we can even change ourselves. Through partnership with the Holy Spirit, we can be cleansed of the things that hold us back and embolden to be fully ourselves.

I once joked about not having received patience as one of the Fruits of the Spirit. I said at the time that it was one instance when I preferred the King James wording of long-suffering instead of patience. If we look closely at Galatians 5:22-23, we will note that the phrase is singular, the Fruit of the Spirit. It is apparently a packaged deal. It is just as apparent that I may not be choosing to partake of the fruit of patience.

Our relationship with God is the essential ingredient in our wholeness. Each of us being whole is the beginning of both oneness and justice. As we look out over our splintered world today, we need to take stock to determine if the gaps in our souls are contributing to the dysfunction about which we have no patience. Paul tells us in our scripture today that our strength comes from God, and it is there waiting for us to claim it.

Prayer: Help us to grasps all the Fruit of the Spirit that is always set before us when we share at your table of love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.