O God in Heaven, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

            You loved us so much you sent your Son to die to save us. You are patient and good and loving and we want to be like you. We long to love others the way you love them -- with an agape love. A love that puts others first and cares more about their needs than our own.  A love that remembers to give generously to the poor.  A love that takes the time to reach out to worshipers sitting alone in the pew so they’ll know they are welcome in the family of God. A love that is kind to unpleasant coworkers.

We long for your joy that bubbles up in us despite our circumstances. We long for your peace in the midst of sickness and joblessness and concern over rebellious children. We want to be gentle and kind even when we’re miserable with the flu.

And we know you can give us joy and the peace that defies understanding. Those good things come from your Spirit. They're the fruit of following you; we can't manufacture them for ourselves. Yet you promise we can have them even when we’re lying bedridden in a nursing home during our final years.

But so often we fall short of that ideal and feel like failures.

Lord, today we lean into you, knowing you can reproduce your Spirit in in ever-increasing quantities inside us and enable us to live with ongoing peace and joy and love no matter what is happening around us or to us. We accept our humanness and the fact that we fail, and we ask you to step in and give us the peace our own efforts will never achieve.  We know that the answer is to spend more time with you, so we choose to draw close to you. We will wait in your presence, knowing you will produce the fruits of your Spirit in us. Thank you for the hope we have in you, Jesus. Amen.

Supporting  verses:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control: against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22,23

“ . . . but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:8b

“They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” Psalm 92:14,15

“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8