Freedom For Today

Galatians 5:23 — Self-Control

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

Have you ever begged and pleaded and bargained with God to do something that you knew he could do? Something that would be totally within his will, like blind people seeing and lame people walking kinds of stuff. Maybe you’ve asked, “Why aren’t you unleashing your full power right now, God??” The answer: deliberate restraint.

We don’t often think about the fact that God has to use self-control. Imagine that you are watching a masterpiece to which you devoted an intense amount of work and creativity get slowly ripped into shreds piece by piece. Most of us would lash out and rush to stop the destruction. And then we would sit and weep helplessly over the ruined creation. But God, perhaps to us seeming indifferent to the suffering in the world, waits. He holds back. He restrains himself from snatching back what is rightfully his in order to think and act strategically. Far from helpless, he is containing his power until the timing is exactly right for the outcome he desires most.

The fact that God is loving and patient and kind and good means we can trust his self-control. His deliberate restraint is for reasons that stem from his deeply trustworthy character. This is made evident in God’s conversation with Job, in which he challenges Job’s questions with a reassuring but firm, “You weren’t there at the beginning so you don’t get why I do what I do.”

Here’s your freedom for today: God knows what he is doing in your life. He knows the timing of every step and every breath. When perhaps it seems like he is far away, he is deeply involved, waiting for the precise moment for the right kind of action. When we don’t get what God is doing, that’s okay. He can handle our questions and frustrations. But we can also remind ourselves in those moments that God is exercising tremendous self-control that benefits our lives when it is used in our direction to save us undeservedly.  Will you trust in his goodness through that process?

 

Galatians 5:23 — Gentleness

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

As a mother I have been pushed, pulled on, whacked in the face, barged in on and of course thrown up on. And while at times it is perhaps tempting to return the favor, good parents maintain a gentleness even when their children are acting quite the opposite. What makes this possible for a parent? A strong sense of self and a groundedness in their ability to manage the situation.

Have you ever noticed that when you take your child aside for a moment of correction, they hear you better the quieter you speak? A whisper is more effective than a shout because you have to have an intimate level of closeness to be heard. Often people think of God as angry and scolding towards them, but this is most often simply a projection of their parents’ non-gentle behavior onto God. God’s gentleness is like a whisper in a tender moment. He does not shout or demand. God is described in the Bible as patient, slow to anger and rich in love. When he corrects you, he gently tugs at your heart with his Word. Or he paints a mental picture that helps give you a new direction.

Here’s your freedom for today: the touch of God is gentle, slowly molding you into the person he designed you to be. If you resist, he will not push or pull harder. He will stop. He will wait. He will let you walk away if you choose to do so. But he will also be waiting when you are ready to come back. God will never force his way into your life. You are free to dismiss him entirely. But when you do let him in, he is a gentle guest who only takes over areas of your heart as they are surrendered to him. One small and gentle change at a time. What does it mean for you today that God is gentle with you? Pause to listen for his voice — connect with his whisper and gentle touch today.

 

Galatians 5:22 — Faithfulness

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

God is faithful when we are not. Let’s start there. That means that when we fail, give up, reject God and otherwise make a total mess (often blaming God for it), he does not walk away. Think about that for a minute. What person in your life has taken every bit of garbage you have thrown at them and stuck around anyway? Probably no one. And if they did, it was most likely an unhealthy codependency that kept them there rather than a deep and enduring faithfulness.

Psalm 119:90 describes the level of God’s faithfulness:

“Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created.”

We feel pretty proud of ourselves when we are faithful for about a minute, but God’s faithfulness extends to every generation. Every. Generation. As enduring as the earth. Most of us Christians are a bit antsy for Jesus to hurry up and come back already, but God’s faithfulness isn’t on a tight timeline. Day in, day out, every morning he starts over with fresh mercy for you (see Lamentations 3:23).

Here’s your freedom for today: you can pause to commune with the most faithful God. Just sit and don’t worry about saying anything. He’s happy to see you and he’ll sit as long as you will. I imagine waking up in the morning, a slow awareness of the world around me. I open my eyes and blink a few times. And God is there to meet me, just saying hi again. With a present for me, fresh life and new mercy for me to drink in. If God’s faithfulness doesn’t get worn out or tired or impatient and he’s perfectly content to wake up with you to a new day and hand you some more grace and mercy, what does that mean for you today? What mess is he happily willing to fix again in your life? What imperfections and character defects is he slowly and faithfully working out?

Galatians 5:22 — Goodness

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

What is the difference between “being good” and “goodness”? Christians so often focus on that first one… We try so hard to “be good” that we pretty much miss the whole point about what it means to live a free life in the Spirit.

Being good requires you to follow all the rules. But, um, Jesus (who never sinned, by the way) broke a lot of rules. Not God’s rules. Man’s rules. You know, all that religious stuff that all the important leaders said was required in order to really follow God’s rules? Jesus was terrible at “being good,” whether he was picking grain on the Sabbath (or worse — healing someone!), flipping tables at the Temple, or talking to unsavory women. (There was that one time a prostitute literally could not stop kissing Jesus’ feet and he commended her while totally slamming all the guys for not welcoming him nearly as warmly… yeah, that happened in Luke 7).

But Jesus was inherently good. God’s very nature embodies goodness. So what is “goodness” if it is not the same as “being good”? Perhaps the most commonly known verse about goodness is found in Psalm 23:6:

“Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”

My first observation in trying to understand goodness is that it is connected here with the words “unfailing love.” Interestingly, Isaiah 63:7 also mentions goodness along with unfailing love. This pairing gives us a clue about goodness — it is deeply intertwined with God’s love that will never let us down.

One more key word to notice from the verse in Psalms: pursue. God’s goodness pursues us. And for what reason? To give us eternal free room and board. God is the best dad ever, and he is so good he chases us around inviting us to eat with him and live with him for free forever. Pretty sweet deal!

Here’s your freedom for today: God is for you. He is pursuing you. He is inviting you over and giving you an eternal home. His goodness is so good that he isn’t asking you to get yourself together first. You’re a total mess? No problem, he loves messes. It’s totally his favorite. You are totally his favorite. As you are. Right now. Yes, he’s that good.

Galatians 5:22 — Kindness

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

As we continue to focus on the character and nature of God described in these verses, we consider God’s kindness towards us. Pause for a moment and think with me — what does it mean that God is kind? What does it look like when God demonstrates kindness towards us? Why is kindness a supernatural phenomenon when we have all seen acts of kindness performed by people, whether Christian or not?

Go beyond the human idea of “random acts of kindness” for a minute and venture deeper into a spiritual and eternal realm in which kindness is an inherent part of how things work. True kindness is fundamentally transformative — when you receive it you are forever changed by it.

Romans 11:6 paints this picture for us:

“And since it [salvation] is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.”

Here’s your freedom for today: the kindness of God extends the offer of relationship to us. He has come to rescue and save because he is kind. Those last words, “free and undeserved” are why this supernatural kindness is so life changing. This is a no-strings-attached, eternally-lasting kindness that we are simply free to take. Or not. He’s not just being “nice” or “polite” — there is something far deeper in the kindness of God that comes with a gift of incredible worth.

Many of us believe in God and perhaps have been Christians a while, but we are still trying to be “good enough” to be really, really saved. It’s the most un-Gospel gospel message ever preached. If I have to be good enough, then why did Christ even come? The Gospel is good news only if it sets us free. So go ahead, take God’s kindness today. Live in total freedom because God at his very nature is kind to you.