JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Living by the Spirit’s Power
16So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
What’s your favorite fruit? What makes it good? Do you like sweet fruit or sour fruit?
The Bible talks about a different kind of fruit—fruit that grows in our hearts when we are believers who follow Jesus and listen to the Holy Spirit.
Take a moment and read Galatians 5:16-26.
Paul, the writer of this letter, tells us to walk by the Spirit—to live our lives the way God would want us to live by following the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Because of sin, we naturally want to do things that are not honoring to God. This is the “desires of the flesh” Paul talks about in verses 16–17. We’ve learned that the Holy Spirit is our guide and gives us the power we need to honor God. On our own, it can be really hard to avoid sin, which is why the Holy Spirit is with us to correct, guide, and change us! But how do we know the Holy Spirit is changing our hearts to love God more rather than “the flesh”?
We see the Holy Spirit changing our hearts as we grow and show the fruit of the Spirit in our life. What are the Fruits of the Spirit? Well, Paul lists them in our key verse today, verses 22–23. Underline each of them in your Bible. Do you know anyone in the Bible who showed all the fruits of the Spirit in his life, all the time? Jesus did!
The Holy Spirit is always working inside us to help us become more like Jesus. This is called sanctification. The fruit of the Spirit we read about are ways we can see ourselves becoming more like Jesus! As we show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control like Jesus did, we are growing in our relationship with him through the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Take some time to memorize the fruit of the Spirit. Complete the Fruit of the Spirit Activity and talk about the questions as you create your tree.
Pick one fruit of the Spirit you would like to grow in more and ask the Holy Spirit to make you more like Jesus through that fruit.