173: Discovering God's Character in the Fruits of the Spirit with Jessica Thompson
Jessica Thompson is a wife, mom, speaker, writer, podcaster, and author of the new devotional study, "How God Loves Us: 40 Days to Discovering His Character in the Fruit of the Spirit", She joins me on the podcast today to encourage you with a more thoroughly biblical understanding of the fruits of the Spirit than you may have heard taught before. I pray you will be as encouraged by this conversation as I was! What we Chat about in This Episode ~Jessica's book, "How God Loves Us: 40 Days to Discovering His Character in the Fruit of the Spirit", what led her to write it, and what readers can expect ~Not looking at the fruit of the Spirit anymore as a list of things we need to do better, but instead looking at that list as a list of the ways that God has loved us and a list of His character qualities ~How an inner assessment of how we are or are not living out the fruits of the Spirit is not beneficial; what actually helps us grow in these fruits ~What the Holy Spirit teaches us about the goodness of Christ and the goodness of Christ to and for us specifically ~Common misconceptions in the church about the fruits of the Spirit ~How the gospel calls us to not look to ourselves, but to God; how that changes our hearts and our ability to love others ~Understanding that it is the fruit of "the Spirit", not the fruit of "trying harder" ~Why heart transformation is the key and mere behavior modification will only get us so far ~Particular fruits of the Spirit which have stood out to Jessica personally and been a balm to her soul as she has understood them as the character of God ~God as a joyful God ~The reality that how we view God will be how we parent ~Something Jessica learned herself about the character of God as she was writing this book ~And more! Head to www.hargraveshomeandhearth.com/podcast for full shownotes!