Hi Donny ~ I’m going to be married 56 years to the same guy this Saturday. I love him dearly, but I’m about as Gentle with him as a blowtorch. When he’s been discouraged, sick or angry, I’ve always told him to “just suck it up.” Yikes! I know better. Shouldn't love result in gentleness & kindness??? Lately, I’ve been trying to concentrate on Proverb 15:1 ~ “A gentle answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger.” My husband really responds when I am gentle and kind, and we have a more peaceful life. I’m definitely thinking I need to pray, study & seek the Holy Spirit more… Thanks for the Prayer Walk. I enjoyed it! ~ Jan xoxo
As usual, you always ask such great questions that make me think more deeply about Scripture. I think we are called to be fruit inspectors. We need to continually inspect our own fruit. But we also need to look at the fruit of others, not to judge, but to help us understand where they are in their walk and how we can encourage them. I think probably my strongest fruit is faithfulness and without question my weakest is patience. It's something God works with me on all the time. As the saying goes, we shouldn't pray for patience because God will give us opportunities to grow it. I still pray for it, though, and work to be more content in the waiting. Obviously, the more we are Spirit-controlled, the more we bear fruit, so being open to the Spirit's leading means we have more tendency to bear fruit. I see beautiful fruit in so many in this community! Thanks for another encouraging walk, Donny. Love the visitation by the critter - an otter?
Donny, wonderful prayer walk this morning..I first listened to it very early like 4:00 a.m. when I couldn't sleep. After listening and spending a few quiet moments reflecting on the message, I was able to go back to sleep for a few hours. Woke up thinking about the fruits of the spirit. taking the time to reflect on each one. Just finished listening the second time, did as you suggested, rated myself, wrote out examples for each one. My strongest fruits are faithfulness, kindness, peace, love and joy. Self-control and patience are the most challenging for me. Self-control in the sense of resisting temptations for monitoring healthy food choices. Now patience on the other hand is a different story...waiting is not easy, I want things to happen when I want them to happen. Thanks for another thoughtful walk to help me understand more fully my walk with the Lord. The area for the walk was beautiful as was the little critter who wanted to walk/swim with you. Blessings to you!
Good morning Donny and Community. Wow, the fruits of the Spirit for me go hand in hand. What I mean by that, is if my walk with God is strong, then I usually bear most of the fruits of the spirit equally because they are naturally a part of me. However, if I temporarily walk away from God when my sinful pride takes over, I don't tend to bear any of the fruits of the Spirit well. Hope that makes sense in what I just said. For me, patience is definitely the worse fruit of the Spirit for me. I tend to be independent and not have a lot patience. I find when I'm impatient, pride enters in, frustrations set in which rips the joy and peace I have for God right out. When I'm impatient, I can get angry and do not bear kindness. When I'm impatient, instead of being faithful, I end up being faithless. Honestly, I hate myself when this happens. Unfortunately, it happened recently. I became impatient which resulted in feeling frustrated; anger set in not knowing or understanding the who, what, where, and why of all of it. That's when I reached out and asked for prayer from this community. You guys are prayer warriors, let me tell you. They were definitely felt, and so appreciated. One thing I do know, is when I experience impatience, it is ME drawing away from God. It is NOT God drawing away from me. After this last struggle or trial if you will, I've learning each time that I believe God is teaching me patience in the endurance of this race, we call life. I'm also being taught to draw even closer to Him; be even more vulnerable in my walk of faith. I would say I need to learn to take these lies and thoughts captive much better so as to not to experience this prideful impatience and the need for control. Believe me, it's much better than years ago, but like all of us, I'm learning and growing in my walk with Jesus each and every day. I'm not perfect and full of flaws, but God loves me and each of us despite those. So the worse fruit of the Spirit for me is patience, but the best for me is kindness which I think you can include the gift of exhortation(encouragement) in that. What I can say is I genuinely LOVE everyone in this community. I will end it there as I'm smiling when I'm writing this at 5:30am. God is blessing this community, and I'm so grateful and thankful He has brought us all together. I know it's helped me tremendously in my walk with Jesus, and I praise Him for that. Thank you Donny for encouraging us each week and letting God use you as a vessel in doing so. Have a great week and God bless each of you.
Hey Donny, I just watched the video and would like to make a more theological introduction.
I noticed that you use singular “fruit of the Spirit” instead of plural “fruits” – if my translation is not wrong.
I have already had some studies on Paul's speech, in which it is considered that the apostle makes a difference between “fruit of the Spirit” in the singular and “fruits” in the plural.
Of all the explanations I've heard, the one I like the most is that the fruit of the Spirit is a unit, so it doesn't give one the freedom to think that one can be kind without being longsuffering.
But at the same time you asked: what is the strongest and weakest fruit in you?
So, my reflection is: if one virtue is directly linked to another, they are indivisible and only “together” form the “fruit”. Therefore, if I lack love, I lack all other virtues...
I wanted to hear from you about this! I know it's a topic that demands deeper discussion, but I'd love to hear from you a little bit...
Thank you for the walk and for the message - which is a field that I am deeply curious/study of - hence the reflection.
Good morning Donny and to all members of this community.I was blessed with another walk with Donny today and thank you Donny I feel that God is using you.I pray that many will be able to join in your walks.I can say that I have the fruit of love and kindness .Sometimes I have no self control but I am working on it.When I help my friends and neighbors I do it for the Lord Jesus Christ.I live in s Senior’s condo and when I learn that someone is sick and can’t cook I bring food and visit them.I love cooking so I share it to my neighbors and friends.If we have the opportunity let us do good to all people especially to those who belong to the family of God.Since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit.God bless us all and pray for one another.I am a prayer warrior and if you need a prayer please contact me through this community I would love to pray for you. Thank again Donny I always love to walk with you on Wednesdays.
Great thought provoking Prayer Walk and Questions today. Thank you. I am not sure what my strongest "Fruit" is but I would say my weakest one is Patience (Longsuffering) I get so frustrated with my youngest son who has a mild Intelectual Disability and has a habit of reading something on his phone and then coming out and telling us all about it even though we have heard it before. When we say we have heard it he just keeps going and lots of times he has only read part or the sensational Headline and doesn't get the right/full story. If it only happened occassionally it would be easier but it can be many times over an evening.
While you were speaking I recalled my old pastor speaking about the fruits and specifically patience. He said he took his wife to the grocery store and chose to wait for her. She was gone an extremely long time. What he realized was that he had used the fruit of patience but just like fruit we must not leave the tree barren and grow new fruit. My fruit should I chose to use any of them are my fruits. My fruits have a hard time expressing themselves because like the apple I can be vibrant or blush. I just know I should not compare my fruit to another’s fruit. This could lead to envy and coveting which doesn’t please God. My expression of the fruits are good but it’s my inner thoughts that get in my way. I guess my most difficult fruit is peace. I’m usually trying to find that fruit. What I heard this morning I need to stop focusing on the wind and keep my eyes on Jesus. Thank you for a blessed prayer walk this morning.
While you were speaking I was reminded of my old pastor speaking about the fruits and specifically patience. He said he took his wife to the grocery store and chose to wait for her. She was gone an extremely long time. What he realized was that he had used the fruit of patience but just like fruit we must not leave the tree barren and grow new fruit. My fruit should I chose to use any of them are my fruits. My fruits have a hard time expressing themselves because like the apple I can be vibrant or blush. I just know I should not compare my fruit to another’s fruit. This could lead to envy and coveting which doesn’t please God. My expression of the fruits are good but it’s my inner thoughts that get in my way. I guess my most difficult fruit is peace. I’m usually trying to find that fruit. What I heard this morning I need to stop focusing on the wind and keep my eyes on Jesus. Thank you for a blessed prayer walk this morning.
I work in a very dark place. Three of us talk about Salvation, Jesus and he as the bridge to God. Only one of us bears fruit, and it ain't me. I think I have to start over, reset this relationship with Jesus.
There are a lot of experienced followers of Christ here. What does starting over look like?
Good morning Donnie. I had to watch your prayer walk again only because time got away from me the first time. You asked what our strongest fruit was. Mine is serving and being there for others when needed. I try my best to think of others before myself. My weakest fruit standing up for myself. I hate confrontation I avoid it like the plague ha ha. I use to be I’ll prove you wrong. Though the last few years that strength as dwindled a lot. I’ve just have talked myself into that thinking so many times I myself have started to believe it. I know God believes I’m worth it so why don’t I? Any ways those are my two I hope you’re having a great morning and I hope the sun is shining where you are. Thank you Donnie for all your prayer walks that you do. They really make my day.
In listening to your prayer walk and then completing the rating of the fruits of the Holy Spirit I was amazed by what was clearly revealed to me about myself. My highest rated fruits were joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness; midrange were love, self control; lowest patience, kindness, gentleness. I realized that my highest fruits are internal, mostly controlled by me. My lowest fruits are external, involving interaction with others. My midrange are a combination of both, self love or love for others, self control for what I want to do or self control when dealing with others. So much of my personality is shaped by these basic fruits. Why is it easy for me to show the joy and peace of my Christian journey but more difficult to share my testimony? Why are words easier for me than actions? Thank you, Donny, for this simple exercise that provides clarity of where I can improve and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance to help me produce more good fruit. It truly is inspirational the way you challenge me to strengthen my relationship with Jesus. Praying for you on your journey!!
This has been my first time listening to your prayer walk. Very deep thoughts and not sure yet how to respond. I do know that forgiveness can be an issue for me due to past abuse. I struggle to forgive and forget the abuse and abusers.
I must say that your walk was so peaceful and the setting so beautiful. I love the lapping of the water. Hope to visit such places when I visit next month from Australia. Know this is off topic, but what was the animal in the water?
Back to the question of good fruit. Not really sure. A difficult one for me.
Hi Donny ~ I’m going to be married 56 years to the same guy this Saturday. I love him dearly, but I’m about as Gentle with him as a blowtorch. When he’s been discouraged, sick or angry, I’ve always told him to “just suck it up.” Yikes! I know better. Shouldn't love result in gentleness & kindness??? Lately, I’ve been trying to concentrate on Proverb 15:1 ~ “A gentle answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger.” My husband really responds when I am gentle and kind, and we have a more peaceful life. I’m definitely thinking I need to pray, study & seek the Holy Spirit more… Thanks for the Prayer Walk. I enjoyed it! ~ Jan xoxo
As usual, you always ask such great questions that make me think more deeply about Scripture. I think we are called to be fruit inspectors. We need to continually inspect our own fruit. But we also need to look at the fruit of others, not to judge, but to help us understand where they are in their walk and how we can encourage them. I think probably my strongest fruit is faithfulness and without question my weakest is patience. It's something God works with me on all the time. As the saying goes, we shouldn't pray for patience because God will give us opportunities to grow it. I still pray for it, though, and work to be more content in the waiting. Obviously, the more we are Spirit-controlled, the more we bear fruit, so being open to the Spirit's leading means we have more tendency to bear fruit. I see beautiful fruit in so many in this community! Thanks for another encouraging walk, Donny. Love the visitation by the critter - an otter?
Donny, wonderful prayer walk this morning..I first listened to it very early like 4:00 a.m. when I couldn't sleep. After listening and spending a few quiet moments reflecting on the message, I was able to go back to sleep for a few hours. Woke up thinking about the fruits of the spirit. taking the time to reflect on each one. Just finished listening the second time, did as you suggested, rated myself, wrote out examples for each one. My strongest fruits are faithfulness, kindness, peace, love and joy. Self-control and patience are the most challenging for me. Self-control in the sense of resisting temptations for monitoring healthy food choices. Now patience on the other hand is a different story...waiting is not easy, I want things to happen when I want them to happen. Thanks for another thoughtful walk to help me understand more fully my walk with the Lord. The area for the walk was beautiful as was the little critter who wanted to walk/swim with you. Blessings to you!
Good morning Donny and Community. Wow, the fruits of the Spirit for me go hand in hand. What I mean by that, is if my walk with God is strong, then I usually bear most of the fruits of the spirit equally because they are naturally a part of me. However, if I temporarily walk away from God when my sinful pride takes over, I don't tend to bear any of the fruits of the Spirit well. Hope that makes sense in what I just said. For me, patience is definitely the worse fruit of the Spirit for me. I tend to be independent and not have a lot patience. I find when I'm impatient, pride enters in, frustrations set in which rips the joy and peace I have for God right out. When I'm impatient, I can get angry and do not bear kindness. When I'm impatient, instead of being faithful, I end up being faithless. Honestly, I hate myself when this happens. Unfortunately, it happened recently. I became impatient which resulted in feeling frustrated; anger set in not knowing or understanding the who, what, where, and why of all of it. That's when I reached out and asked for prayer from this community. You guys are prayer warriors, let me tell you. They were definitely felt, and so appreciated. One thing I do know, is when I experience impatience, it is ME drawing away from God. It is NOT God drawing away from me. After this last struggle or trial if you will, I've learning each time that I believe God is teaching me patience in the endurance of this race, we call life. I'm also being taught to draw even closer to Him; be even more vulnerable in my walk of faith. I would say I need to learn to take these lies and thoughts captive much better so as to not to experience this prideful impatience and the need for control. Believe me, it's much better than years ago, but like all of us, I'm learning and growing in my walk with Jesus each and every day. I'm not perfect and full of flaws, but God loves me and each of us despite those. So the worse fruit of the Spirit for me is patience, but the best for me is kindness which I think you can include the gift of exhortation(encouragement) in that. What I can say is I genuinely LOVE everyone in this community. I will end it there as I'm smiling when I'm writing this at 5:30am. God is blessing this community, and I'm so grateful and thankful He has brought us all together. I know it's helped me tremendously in my walk with Jesus, and I praise Him for that. Thank you Donny for encouraging us each week and letting God use you as a vessel in doing so. Have a great week and God bless each of you.
Hey Donny, I just watched the video and would like to make a more theological introduction.
I noticed that you use singular “fruit of the Spirit” instead of plural “fruits” – if my translation is not wrong.
I have already had some studies on Paul's speech, in which it is considered that the apostle makes a difference between “fruit of the Spirit” in the singular and “fruits” in the plural.
Of all the explanations I've heard, the one I like the most is that the fruit of the Spirit is a unit, so it doesn't give one the freedom to think that one can be kind without being longsuffering.
But at the same time you asked: what is the strongest and weakest fruit in you?
So, my reflection is: if one virtue is directly linked to another, they are indivisible and only “together” form the “fruit”. Therefore, if I lack love, I lack all other virtues...
I wanted to hear from you about this! I know it's a topic that demands deeper discussion, but I'd love to hear from you a little bit...
Thank you for the walk and for the message - which is a field that I am deeply curious/study of - hence the reflection.
Good morning Donny and to all members of this community.I was blessed with another walk with Donny today and thank you Donny I feel that God is using you.I pray that many will be able to join in your walks.I can say that I have the fruit of love and kindness .Sometimes I have no self control but I am working on it.When I help my friends and neighbors I do it for the Lord Jesus Christ.I live in s Senior’s condo and when I learn that someone is sick and can’t cook I bring food and visit them.I love cooking so I share it to my neighbors and friends.If we have the opportunity let us do good to all people especially to those who belong to the family of God.Since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit.God bless us all and pray for one another.I am a prayer warrior and if you need a prayer please contact me through this community I would love to pray for you. Thank again Donny I always love to walk with you on Wednesdays.
Great thought provoking Prayer Walk and Questions today. Thank you. I am not sure what my strongest "Fruit" is but I would say my weakest one is Patience (Longsuffering) I get so frustrated with my youngest son who has a mild Intelectual Disability and has a habit of reading something on his phone and then coming out and telling us all about it even though we have heard it before. When we say we have heard it he just keeps going and lots of times he has only read part or the sensational Headline and doesn't get the right/full story. If it only happened occassionally it would be easier but it can be many times over an evening.
While you were speaking I recalled my old pastor speaking about the fruits and specifically patience. He said he took his wife to the grocery store and chose to wait for her. She was gone an extremely long time. What he realized was that he had used the fruit of patience but just like fruit we must not leave the tree barren and grow new fruit. My fruit should I chose to use any of them are my fruits. My fruits have a hard time expressing themselves because like the apple I can be vibrant or blush. I just know I should not compare my fruit to another’s fruit. This could lead to envy and coveting which doesn’t please God. My expression of the fruits are good but it’s my inner thoughts that get in my way. I guess my most difficult fruit is peace. I’m usually trying to find that fruit. What I heard this morning I need to stop focusing on the wind and keep my eyes on Jesus. Thank you for a blessed prayer walk this morning.
While you were speaking I was reminded of my old pastor speaking about the fruits and specifically patience. He said he took his wife to the grocery store and chose to wait for her. She was gone an extremely long time. What he realized was that he had used the fruit of patience but just like fruit we must not leave the tree barren and grow new fruit. My fruit should I chose to use any of them are my fruits. My fruits have a hard time expressing themselves because like the apple I can be vibrant or blush. I just know I should not compare my fruit to another’s fruit. This could lead to envy and coveting which doesn’t please God. My expression of the fruits are good but it’s my inner thoughts that get in my way. I guess my most difficult fruit is peace. I’m usually trying to find that fruit. What I heard this morning I need to stop focusing on the wind and keep my eyes on Jesus. Thank you for a blessed prayer walk this morning.
I work in a very dark place. Three of us talk about Salvation, Jesus and he as the bridge to God. Only one of us bears fruit, and it ain't me. I think I have to start over, reset this relationship with Jesus.
There are a lot of experienced followers of Christ here. What does starting over look like?
Good morning Donnie. I had to watch your prayer walk again only because time got away from me the first time. You asked what our strongest fruit was. Mine is serving and being there for others when needed. I try my best to think of others before myself. My weakest fruit standing up for myself. I hate confrontation I avoid it like the plague ha ha. I use to be I’ll prove you wrong. Though the last few years that strength as dwindled a lot. I’ve just have talked myself into that thinking so many times I myself have started to believe it. I know God believes I’m worth it so why don’t I? Any ways those are my two I hope you’re having a great morning and I hope the sun is shining where you are. Thank you Donnie for all your prayer walks that you do. They really make my day.
In listening to your prayer walk and then completing the rating of the fruits of the Holy Spirit I was amazed by what was clearly revealed to me about myself. My highest rated fruits were joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness; midrange were love, self control; lowest patience, kindness, gentleness. I realized that my highest fruits are internal, mostly controlled by me. My lowest fruits are external, involving interaction with others. My midrange are a combination of both, self love or love for others, self control for what I want to do or self control when dealing with others. So much of my personality is shaped by these basic fruits. Why is it easy for me to show the joy and peace of my Christian journey but more difficult to share my testimony? Why are words easier for me than actions? Thank you, Donny, for this simple exercise that provides clarity of where I can improve and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance to help me produce more good fruit. It truly is inspirational the way you challenge me to strengthen my relationship with Jesus. Praying for you on your journey!!
This has been my first time listening to your prayer walk. Very deep thoughts and not sure yet how to respond. I do know that forgiveness can be an issue for me due to past abuse. I struggle to forgive and forget the abuse and abusers.
I must say that your walk was so peaceful and the setting so beautiful. I love the lapping of the water. Hope to visit such places when I visit next month from Australia. Know this is off topic, but what was the animal in the water?
Back to the question of good fruit. Not really sure. A difficult one for me.
In view of how my day is today, I think I will listen again tomorrow and see what I think then. Thanks Donny