“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
“You are very much in the place I want you to be with one exception,” the Spirit of God spoke to my heart one morning. “Look at your heart. What do you see? There is hurt there… ”
This is not all He said. He also said this: “Repent. Get rid of every bit of it. I want that space for myself…”
We all have our hurts in life at times, don’t we? Long ago, I read a book called The Way of Agape by Nancy Missler who helped me see holding onto hurt and letting it build up and fester rather than releasing it to the Lord is sin against God. The Lord showed me that day I had hurt in my heart I didn’t even realize was there! And that it was time to release it to Him!
What does this have to do with serving Jesus in our everyday lives? The Lord wanted that place in my heart that was filled with hurt for Himself and His love, grace, mercy, hope, joy, comfort, compassion, strength, etc.
The Lord doesn’t want us to love and serve Him and others with hearts filled with hurt let alone anything else that takes up space where He wants to dwell. Anger, bitterness, rejection, hatred, pride, condemnation, negativity, judgment, jealousy, etc. not only are sin against God, but they take up room where the Spirit of God and the fruit of His Spirit should be instead!
Let us serve Jesus filled to overflowing not with hurt and other manifestations of the flesh, but with the Spirit of God and His bountiful blessed beautiful fruit!