His fruit or mine?

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Galatians 5:22-23

I've heard this verse so many times.  In fact I have found myself not wanting to hear anymore.  I said that it was just too familiar, but I think there was another reason too.  Displaying love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in my life is hard.  I fail at it all the time!  

When I heard people talk about this verse, the sermon or discussion often looks at how we as Christians can be better at these "fruits" or characteristics.  Someone might list steps we can take to work on being more joyful.  Or I might comment that I'm good at peace and kindness, but I struggle with patience and self-control.

However, while it is good to work on ways to show more love, to be more patient, and to practice gentleness, I don't think that is what Galatians 5 is getting at.  "But the Holy Spirit produces...."  It is God's Spirit that should be producing the fruit, not us.  In fact, that is one of the major themes of Galatians.  We are saved by faith, not through following rules.  In Galatians 2 Paul talks about how following the law only shows us how guilty we are.

I don't have to learn or practice this fruit listed in Galatians.  I don't need to practice 5 steps in how to show love.  I don't have to get angry at myself for loosing patience with my kids, thinking I must be a bad Christian.  I don't have to rely on my kindness to get me through a meeting.  This fruit - these characteristics - come from Holy Spirit.  I need to get myself out of the way and let God's Spirit manifest fruit through me.

So when I know I need to love, I don't just need to remind myself to love or have a list of ways I can love.  I need to remember God's amazing love and surrender the situation to Him.  When I need patience in my day I need to remember all of the times God has been patient with me and open myself up for his patience to poor through me.

I'm not saying that we are therefore off the hook.  I'm not saying that it is not hard work.  In fact I'm going to devote one month out of this year for each fruit.  To focus on surrendering those areas of my life to the Lord.  It is going to take focus.  It is going to take work.  It is going to take practice.  But God can do it.  God can transform my life.  God can produce His fruit through me.

As I was thinking about this challenge for me I decided that Fruit would be my one word for 2013.  (One word is a trend that has been out for a couple years now.  A couple places you can read about it are here and here.)  And since I'm a scrapbooker, I scrapped it:

Credits: I resolve by Juno Designs, fonts are Avenir Next and Blackoak Std.