Fruit of the Spirit

Thought for the Day:
Galations 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

I would like to speak about something that we have probably all done at one time or another... That's to ask for more. It's so easy to ask for more of something and not even feel guilty about it because it isn't anything bad. If your like me, you ask for more patience. Or maybe for you it's more love or more faithfulness, or more self-control. There is nothing wrong with any of these things in and of themselves. However, in my devotions today something was brought to my attention. It's not that it was anything that I hadn't heard before. But the Spirit knew that I needed to see this with different eyes then I had seen it before. That something was part of the Thought for the Day above...."the fruit of the Spirit is". Now, I don't know how many times that I have read that particular verse before but, today it opened my eyes. I pray that it also has opened my heart as well. I pray the words will be engraved there never to be forgotten.
I'm not sure if you have grasped what was so exciting and eye opening to me, so I will try to explain.
It is so easy to look at each of these things, love, faithfulness, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control and patience individually. But the truth is that they are not just individual traits that we are to acquire and use to become better people. Not that these are traits that we shouldn't long for, I don't think that anyone can have too much patience or too much faithfulness. But we need to remember what comes before that little list of traits.... the fruits of the Spirit. Notice that the Spirit is capitalized. You know I've never paid much attention to it before. It just seemed to be something that was assumed. Yeah these are the fruits! But, what really, honestly, Finally sunk in was the Spirit (fruits of). So, if I am lacking in any of these fruits, guess what I'm lacking in the Spirit! Wow!!! Man did I feel convicted. All of this time I have been praying that God would give me more patience. I should have been praying that God would give me more of the Spirit. I know that tomorrow morning when I have my devotions I am going to be praying just a bit differently. I'll be praying more for more of the Spirit to live in me. It makes so much sense now that I see things a bit more clearly. I mean if more of the Spirit is living in me then won't I be more patient, won't I be more faithful, won't I have more self-control? If this has never been a problem for you that's awesome! For the rest of us who are just receiving a wake up call, Hallelujia !!!

Oh, before I forget Happy Father's Day to any fathers out there. And I hope that you will join me in sending a Happy Father's Day to the Father of us all, God thank you for all you do for us each day that we never even take time to see!!!