The Fruit of the Spirit is evidence of living a Spirit-filled life. Galatians 5:22-23 speaks of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control." These are all attributes of the fruit of the Spirit in which I have experience increasing growth within the last few months. However, I would say self-control has been an area in which I have struggled the most. This fast has been helpful in putting me in a place where I am very aware of my need for the Holy Spirit to be in control and not myself.
Today I lead my discipleship group of girls and for the last 30 minutes of our time together we went out sharing. Cru uses a tool called Soularium, which is a picture survey, to lead into the gospel with students we meet. After 20 minutes of walking around and not finding anyone to talk to, Karina and I finally met a girl near the library. We did Soularium with her, and through the questions we asked we found out she was Wickan. She was very open with us and explained how she became Wickan four years ago after a process of searching for answers to her questions about life and the desire to find satisfaction. However, in four years she hadn't found what she was looking for. When conversations lead to answers like this it would be very easy to transition into, "Well let me tell you about Jesus. He is the answer to all life's questions and will satisfy all your desires." And I have taken these opportunities in the past to lead directly into the gospel. However, this time was different. I was trusting the Spirit and not my selfish desire to rush into the gospel in the quick two minutes we had left to talk to her. I felt lead to remain humble and patient, and was overcome by self-control. God was telling me to steward my time left with her in a more effective way. He was assuring me that He would be faithful in providing a better time for me to share the gospel with her if I would simply share His love through my actions in these last few moments. What she needed first was to see Christ's love through me caring enough to get to know her. In the remaining time we had with her she expressed her struggle with developing close friendships between work and school the past year, and how she desires to have people in her life who cared enough to take the time to get to know here like we were. Bingo, there was God's answer! We exchanged phone numbers and planned to meet up again this week to talk more.
Sometimes it's easy to become so anxious in getting to the gospel with someone that they get turned off before you get there. They can sense that you aren't genuinely concerned for them as a person, and have ulterior motives. This girl respected us more for not doing that and through seeing we were different, she agreed to have lunch with me Friday. Now I imagine my lesson in self-control is still in session, as I know I won't be eating very much when we do meet. If this is something she notices I pray it will spark a natural transition into sharing with her more about my relationship with the Lord. Now don't get me wrong, my intentions are to share the gospel with her and I pray her heart will be open to it. Patience is something else the Lord has been disciplining me in during this fast. My interactions with my new friend are going to require a lot of patience. As I respectfully listen to share about her beliefs, I pray the Holy Spirit moves in her as I share Christ with her.
I'm so thankful for the Holy Spirit and His role in my life. His intercession in our conversations when we are yielding to Him is perfect in timing and humbles us to be more like Christ. He interceded and lead the conversation with my friend today. Through His empowerment in my life, I'm having the opportunity to share Christ with others. Have you yielded your life to Him? Are you seeing Fruit of the Spirit in your life? Are you sharing Christ with others? If not, I encourage you to read more about how to discover the Spirit-filled life here.
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