We must take sin seriously, longing to please our Redeemer and fearing his discipline as we focus on our mission, doing nothing to detract from its effectiveness.

When the church is functioning as it ought, it serves as a strengthening and emboldening oasis for us as we venture out each day to point people to Christ in our anti-Christian culture.

We must be careful to never allow our quest to bear the fruit of the Spirit to become a prideful or competitive endeavor.

Because God’s Spirit has graciously done so much to redeem us, save us, and give us new life, we ought to certainly give our all to know him, love him, and wholeheartedly follow his instructions for our lives.

Bearing the fruit of the Spirit is a battle that only results in real progressive victory over the desires of the flesh by those who are regenerate and actively reinforce and apply their repentance each day.

Getting our fallen physical and moral impulses to yield to our spiritual desires is never easy, but it is something that God’s Spirit has promised to enable us to do with increasing success as we pray for it and fight for it.

By God’s power our bold, courageous, and sometimes indignant resolve to do right must be thoughtfully governed by a humble, constructive, and Christlike propriety, regardless of the provocations from our sinful world.

God is perfectly reliable, consistent, and faithful in all his words and actions – a virtuous pattern that his Spirit has promised to produce in us as we understand it and purpose to reflect it.

God will change our core desires to enable us to persistently seek after what is good, as we call out for a new heart and continue to resolve to do what is good.

We must learn the definition and application of kindness from an ongoing biblical study of God’s character, in prayerful hope of reflecting that same godly kindness in our relationships.