fruit free zone?

Galatians 5 includes an amazing verse that tells us about the fruit of the spirit which it tells us are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

My hope is that I will see in my own life evidence of these fruit growing in my actions daily.  That I will find I am naturally growing in my ability to love, growing in my capacity for finding joy, growing in my desire for peace, growing in my love for peace, growing in my desire to show kindness, growing in my care for goodness, growing in my passion for faithfulness to God, growing in my ability to show gentleness and growing in my ability to have self-control.  But the reality is that those things are not something I can grit and force, they come from God's growth in my heart and are an outpouring of his life growing within me.

But, strangely, while most Christians desire to see these fruit grow in most parts of their lives...we sometimes see them resist the fruit in certain zones and call them off limits?  

For example, a normally kind Christian might turn into a cursing maniac at a sporting event who yells obscenities at the ref who makes a "bad" call.  Or a normally peaceful Christian might flip a switch and flip the bird at another driver who cuts them off in traffic.  Or a normally self controlled follower might forget all about the teachings of Jesus on loving their enemies when they encounter a person from the other political party and start shouting at them in un-Christlike ways online.

Why do we think that a sporting event, the steering wheel or the keyboard are fruit free zones?  There is no place where the Spirit of God does not seek to dwell with us!  To be a follower of Jesus means to follow Him always...even in the places where we would rather go alone, do our own thing or say what we want to say.

So I encourage you to do a Heart Check.  Not a literal one with a stethoscope, but an emotional and spiritual one.  Dig deep into your heart and see if there are places where you have tried to tell the Holy Spirit they cannot go.  Have you told God there are places or times or things that He cannot change...that are off limits?  If so, you need to submit those to Him and his transforming power too!

In Christ,
Pastor Scott