FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT

Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. I was talking with my co-worker today about the conclusion I have come to about my eating problem and how I want to fix it. He always has good advice and stories to share and he shared with me what he heard a preacher preach on a few years back; The fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit begin with Love and end with Self-Control. He said to think of those 2 as book ends and those book ends start with love which holds joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness together. On the end you have self control; if you do not have self control all of those books will fall over because there is nothing to hold them up. This goes back to the beginning where love begins; if you don't have self control you will never be able to love yourself because those fruits have nothing to lean on. This opened my eyes so much. I live a Godly life and I want to have God in everything I do. When you don't have control over your life and you are unhappy that means the devil is happy. God gives us those fruits and He gives us the option to make our own decisions. He is always there to guide us but we have to follow His guidance in order to have those fruits. The devil is always trying to make the people of the world who follow God fall off path and he knows what will make us go off that path. For some people alcohol is the crutch, for others it may be fighting or drugs...for me, the devil knows I have a problem with food and he tries to use it in every way possible to bring me down. By living a Godly life I have to push the devil away and know that when I have a craving or "I just can't stop myself" that I can't give in because I would be giving in to the devil. God wants us to be happy. He wants us to hold all the fruits and keep them together, never letting the book ends fall off the shelf and from here on out that is what I plan to do. I will not give in to those temptations the devil pushes my way! He will not win. I WILL have victory and I WILL have it with God! God has blessed me with a wonderful job and wonderful co-workers. This Monday could not have started any better! God Bless!!!