Heavenly Father I praise You for giving me the chance to help build the kingdom. For allowing me to use the gifts You have given me to influence my community, state and country. I praise You for trusting me enough that I will be able to represent You in how I live around people knowing how often I have failed in the past.
Holy Spirit, You inspired Paul when he wrote to the Galatians and we have as part of the Bible now, what was the wrong way to live and the right way to live by comparing these spiritual attributes to fruit growing on a vine. He wrote, You inspired, “walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. [We give up our pride and our “right” when we become a follower of the way.] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. [The mosaic law which started with Moses and grew under the Levite priests who followed the order of Aaron created a group of laws created by man to interpret God’s 10 commandments and became an impossible way to live for God which ended when Christ died on the cross to fulfill the original price through sacrifice for our sins we are born into from Adam. And now we can connect and have relationship once we accept salvation from Christ.] Now the workers of the flesh [sins born into our nature from Adam] are revealed, which are these: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, rage, selfishness, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I previously warned you, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, But the fruit of the Spirit [Paul’s way of making you visualize spiritual ideas in the physical realm] is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control; against such there is no law. Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another and envying one another.”
Holy Spirit I continue to ask for wisdom and discernment so that I can walk in the Spirit and leave the flesh behind. Help me to be so focused on bearing the right fruit that I have no time to give into creating rotten fruit. Help me to live with an integrity that will stand for Your reputation, not worrying about mine. Help me to be bold when necessary but not when it hurts people for no good reason. In Jesus’ name, amen.