Flourishing

SCRIPTURE: Galatians 5:19-23 NIV The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

THOUGHT: God’s laws (think 10 Commandments here) always have to do with human flourishing. Multiple times Scripture says that these laws are written on the human heart – we intuitively know how to live in order to promote community, marriage, good parenting, rich friendship, ethical business behavior, and the like. But we override that impulse so often it doesn’t work. Enter confusion and brokenness. “Love” of self at the expense of others.  Self-numbing strategies that dull the ache inside about what has been done to us, and what we’ve done to others. We don’t flourish.

God’s antidote to these acts of flesh is to plant something deep in our spirits: his Spirit. And when we ask for it, nurture it, long for it, press into it, agree with God that the acts of flesh aren’t producing the life we desire, that fruit can grow, blossom, ripen, reproduce. Regardless of what’s happening around us, this kind of fruit growing in us leads toward human flourishing, an inner thriving that no law can come against.

PRAYER: God, grow your fruit in me to a full harvest of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.