Read Galatians 5
Galatians 5:22 says, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law."
We long, don't we, for all of these things in our lives? I look at this list and I say, "God, I want all of these things. God, we need You to produce all of these things in us." We are so prone to the flesh, and right before these verses, we see the works of the flesh, and we are so prone to live lives that are indulging in sin or selfishness, but we want the fruit of the spirit in our lives.
Let's just pray for these things today. Only God, by His spirit, can produce these things in us. We need Him to do that.
Galatians 5:22 just provokes us to pray, "Oh, God, produce the fruit of Your spirit in us today. We pray that you'd produce love in us. Help us to love as You love. Help us to love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We pray that You'd help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Lord, this kind of love doesn't come naturally to us. We are prone to love ourselves. Help us to love others as we're prone to love ourselves.
"Produce that fruit in us for joy. Oh, God, please produce Your joy in us today, regardless of the circumstances around us, regardless of the situations we face, or even sometimes the emotions we feel. We pray for a joy that supersedes circumstances, to characterize our lives.
"We pray for love, for joy, for peace, oh God, amidst turmoil around us, amidst frustration that we'll be tempted with today, tomorrow, amidst the challenges we face, and it's just a spinning world around us, we pray for peace in the middle of it from Your spirit.
"We pray for patience. God, help us to be patient. Help us to be patient in every area of our lives. Help us to be patient in our relationships. Produce patience in us when we are quick to do so many different things. We're quick to anger. We're quick to speak. Help us to be patient. Help us to pause, with Your peace.
"We pray for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Oh, God, produce Your kindness in us today, we pray. We pray that our lives would reflect Your kindness today, for goodness, all that that means for goodness and righteousness and benevolence, Lord, that these characteristics would mark us, that we would live good lives, that we would be good people that reflect Your goodness.
"We pray for goodness in our lives. We pray for faithfulness. God, keep us faithful, we pray. Help us to hold fast to You. Help us not to wander from You today. Help us to faithfully follow You today.
"We pray for gentleness. Oh, God, we pray for the gentleness of Christ in us, in our demeanor, in our words, in our thoughts, in our actions. We pray that You'd produce gentleness in us.
"We pray, oh God, for self-control. Lord, discipline us, we pray, that we might have self-control, that the character of Christ might be more and more evidenced in us, not the fruit of the flesh, but the fruit of Your spirit in our self-control.
"Oh, God, please produce, today, this fruit from Your spirit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen."
The Pray the Word podcast is used with permission from Radical. For more from Pray the Word, visit radical.net.Â