So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth….If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth….If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
1 John 1:6,8,10

Dear God, so I skipped verse 5, 7, and 9 intentionally. They are the ones we want to read. They are the opposites of these verses. We don’t like to think of ourselves and “lying,” “living in spiritual darkness,” “fooling ourselves,” or “calling [you] a liar.” No, I like to think of myself as all of the good things. But am I “fooling [myself]?” Maybe.

I was speaking with a woman in line at the post office yesterday, and we were talking about showing kindness to people who are working in a place that is understaffed. In context, we were abut 5th and 6th in line and there was only one person working the counter. I could tell he was overhearing our conversation and he seemed grateful that we were saying out loud, “Everyone is shorthanded. Be kind to those who show up.” In talking with her, I gave her a compliment. I said, “I’m going to tell you something I’ve told one of our volunteers. You’ve heard of ‘resting b**** face?’ Well, you have ‘resting joy face.'”

Father, the fruits of the Spirit include love, joy, and peace, not to mention patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Help me to exude all of these today. Not in a manufactured way, but in a way that goes back to verse 6. Help them to flow as fruit that grows in me out of my fellowship with you. And do it all for your glory so that others might be drawn to you.

I pray all of this through the grace you extend to me by Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection,

Amen