The past two weeks, we have been discussing fruit slices of the Fruit of the Spirit. Hopefully, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to develop those slices. The key word in the last sentence is "allowing". The Holy Spirit wants to develop all of the slices but only if we allow Him to. Prayerfully, we will all come to the point of allowing Him to do His job in us. The last three slices of the Fruit of the Spirit are the kickers. These three are probably the smallest and underdeveloped in us all.
The seventh slice is faithfulness. Are we faithful to God? Are we faithful to others? Are we consistent in what we say and do? Can others trust us when we say we will do something? Do we trust or are faithful to God even when it looks like He's not doing anything? This slice can be hard especially when things aren't going the way we want. The eight slice is gentleness or meekness. Most of the time we want things our way or no way. Can we humble ourselves to God and others? Can we humble ourselves when we know we are right? Being meek and humble doesn't mean we are weak. This shows our strength under attack. Jesus was humble even to death, but at the end, He was victorious. This is also true for us. Let us develop humility, gentleness, meekness. It will show others our will power and resistance to being prideful. The ninth and last slice is probably the smallest of them all - self control. We may think we have self control, but there are definitely areas in our lives in which we don't. Do we overindulge in desserts, food, exercise, television, computer games, social media, etc? How many of us start a diet only to get off it when we see a piece of fried chicken or a dessert we like? Do we have self control to spend time with God when other things are calling for us? This slice will continually be developed as long as we are in these natural bodies.
Prayerfully, as we go through this week and the rest of our natural lives, we will continue to allow the Holy Spirit to develop these slices in our lives. Our desire as believers is to be more like Christ. The only way to do that is to have these slices develop so that we can become a tasty "orange" to others. Have a blessed week!