Day 40 - Practice Makes Perfect

Spiritual warfare is real. Satan really does want to distract us and mislead us so that we take our focus off of the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul, in writing to the Galatians, very clearly describes spiritual warfare in two phrases: “the works of the flesh” and “the fruit of the Spirit.” Please don’t get the impression that these two forces are equal; they are not. The Spirit is infinitely more powerful.

However, if we rely on our own wisdom, we will make wrong choices. If we try to achieve the qualities listed as the fruit of the Spirit by our own might and effort, we will fail. Galatians 5:16-21 contains a list of the works of the flesh—the evil desires that every person faces at some point in their life. The only way to be free of these evil desires is to let the Holy Spirit’s power work in us.

Ignoring the evil desires is not effective at all—in fact, doing so demonstrates that the Holy Spirit is not living in us, and we have not been transformed; or that we have tasted the Spirit and are now grieving Him by our ambivalence toward His presence in us. These evil desires—or works of the flesh—are to be dealt with decisively. They are overcome through the power of the Spirit.

Galatians 6:22-26 lists the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is different from spiritual gifts. We’ve studied that the Holy Spirit gives us each gifts as He sees fit. The fruit of the Spirit is in every Christian who has been transformed by the Holy Spirit’s power. So, every one of us has all the facets of this fruit.

Over the next several days, we will be looking at each facet of the fruit of the Spirit. These virtues that are the Spirit’s fruit don’t necessarily need to be classified, although they do seem to fall into three categories (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 10):

1. The first three seem to be Christian habits of the mind and are directed God-ward,

2. The second three deal with the Christian’s relationship with others—they are more social virtues, and

3. The last three concern the Christian as he is to be in himself.

Do you remember our Beginner Sailing Tips? This is the list for those who are new to sailing and we’ve looked at several of them. These help folks master the basics of sailing so that they can be effective and reap all the benefits associated with it. This list concludes with this tip: Practice makes perfect. As we grow toward a life that catches the wind of the Spirit, this is a good tip for us to remember as well: practice makes perfect.