So for what it’s worth, I’m sharing with you a praise time I
had recently. Several times a week I try to jog around a 5K
track across the street from my office. I’ve been at it for five or six years. I
wasn’t fast when I started running, and I’m even slower now. But still I labor
on, and the best thing about it is the 30 minutes or so it gives me to pray. The
other day I had a particularly joyous time with the Lord.
Here’s a little context. The fruit of the Spirit, as you may
know, is a description of nine virtues, character qualities, that are listed in
Galatians 5:22-23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These nine “fruit” are the evidence
and outgrowth of Christ’s life within us. Just as the lemons on my lemon tree confirm
that the tree is alive and healthy, so these nine qualities reveal something of
the progress of Christ’s life in us.
Okay. So it hit me that any evidence of these qualities in
my life is only because of Jesus. And I decided as part of my prayer time to declare this to the Lord
for each one of the nine. For example...
- Jesus, I know that without You, I would have no love, none at all.
- Christ, joy comes from You. And there is no joy, not really, apart from You.
- Lord, only You have brought peace to my life. Without You I would not know peace.
So I made that declaration for all nine, a simple confession of the
barrenness of my life apart from Jesus. That took a few minutes, I suppose.
But then I decided to go back to each of the nine, and try
to think about the first time I ever experienced Christ’s love, or joy, or
peace. And then I would try to praise Him for the experience and gift of these
virtues in my life.
Let me give you just three examples of what I mean.
- Thank You, Jesus, for showing Your love to me. I think the first time I ever really understood it at all was the summer I heard the gospel for the first time, and realized You had loved me enough to die for me. Thank You so much.
- And Jesus, I remember experiencing Your peace when I was just a teenager. It was the time I came home from school to discover that my mom had been hospitalized. Dad had recently died, and now Mom was gone. How alone I felt, but then You gave me such an overwhelming feeling of calm, and somehow I knew everything would be okay. Thank You for Your peace that I have experienced so many times since then.
- Dear Lord, I am aware of Your patience toward me nearly every day. I’m disappointed in myself so often, and the fact that I still trip up and don’t honor You as I should bums me out. But You never condemn me. You’ve put up with me all these years, and I don’t ever get the feeling that you're upset. Thank You for Your patience.
You get the idea. I thought and prayed and praised through each of the nine “fruit”
in turn. It was such a blessing to spend the time reflecting on the character of my Savior, and to worship Him.
Maybe you'd like to give it a try. He is so worthy of all praise.
