Gifts versus Fruit

This is the 1st instalment of my extracts of Joyce Meyer's CD box set on the Fruits of the Spirit.

God enables us to do what we do (our gifts) and we need to give Him glory for it, instead of letting our pride make us seek self-indulgence and glory and status from the world – we must stop trying to impress one another and rather focus on impressing and glorifying God.

God will still meet your need (in a different way) even though He hasn’t given you the same gift(s) He gave to some else, so don’t be jealous of other people’s gifts – He gave you your gifts for the benefit of others (this applies to all of us).

You cannot find peace and joy if you don’t develop your character (which is your fruit). A lack of developing your fruit can make your gifts of little help, and even negative.

If you will focus on what’s important to God, He will always take care of what’s important to you.

An angry Christian is an oxymoron.

Love and self-control are the book-ends of the fruits of the Spirit; without them, what’s in between can fall over.

Don’t be so easily offended, full of resentment, comparison, bitterness, gossip, or being irritable, negative, critical, jealous or superficial – looking good on the outside but with nothing good on the inside – our inner life, heart, thought life, attitudes and desires are what is important to God.

Seek God for who He is, not for what He can do for us.

Feeling bad is not a good excuse to act ugly. You don’t have to feel at your best to be able to bless others.

One of the quickest ways you can determine a person’s heart is to listen to what they talk about.

Give whatever you give unconditionally – don’t still try to control the gist in what the recipient does with it or how they respond to your giving – don’t give expecting something in return, or be bitter or critical if they don’t respond or express appreciation the way you feel satisfied with (self-fulfilling).

You need to know who you are in Christ first, before you try to help others, otherwise you are just trying to impress people, not God.

Don’t try to do something God has not called you to do, because you will fail or struggle at that and you won’t have joy and peace.

Live for God and His glory, and heaven will applaud you.