Sometimes we feel depressed, out of sorts, angry, or easily irritated. Definitely not the fruits of the Spirit: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV).
What is going on when a Christian is not showing the fruit of the Spirit? Sin. The breaking of God's Law. Sometimes this gets redirected by blaming circumstances, or other people, but the bottom line is that as people starting out sinful and living in a sinful world we tend to react in sin. We are habituated to sin and need to become habituated to God's ways. This does not excuse other people's bad behavior, for we are only responsible for our own. God will judge each for their own actions.
When people think that their situation is unique, they must remember Ecclesiastes 1:9, "That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun."
Man's way is to reject the Bible because following the Bible would mean taking responsibility for our own behaviors. Some churches have played the part of Satan in changing what God says, "did He really say that?" kind of thinking. Proverbs 21:2 "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart." We must be constantly praying for discernment and reading our Bibles to find what the will of God is, not our will or the will of a religious leader. The primary reasons for sin is nothing new. 1 John 3:4, "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness." God has given his commands in the Bible and we sin when we break them.
Variety in the manifestations of secondary behaviors are endless, although they are all spawned from sin. Satan has his hand in the game, wants to twist all of what God has made, and distract from the true issue of disobeying God. Many times these secondary issues are mistaken for primary ones. These are the issues worldly wisdom tries to rationalize or medicate. If symptoms can be diminished then there is no problem. The primary sin is not dealt with. For example, anxiety and fear can lead to all sorts of problems, including medical ones, when the real problem isn't about the stresses of life it is about trust in God.
How do we show fruits of the Spirit? Take responsibility for our behaviors, repent before God and man, make it right, and change our sinful behaviors to righteous ones.
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