December 2025-A Testing Time of Year
It’s a testing time of year for many of us. I mean that quite literally. If you’re at school you’ll soon receive an end of term report card. If you’re a student you’ll likely have upcoming exams. If you’re a worker you’ll likely have an annual review looming on the horizon. Our daily lives are full of metrics by which success is measured and goals are set. Have we progressed or regressed?
I wonder how you perceive progress in the Christian life?
I’ve been wonderfully reminded of this as we’ve journeyed through Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In particular, the famous Fruit of the Spirit portion of chapter 5. For years I’ve been familiar with its content and even memorised it’s beauty. However, as is always the case with Scripture, there are new glories to see if we take the time to ponder, meditate and pray.
I’ve asked myself a new question as I’ve prepared to preach it. Why did Paul feel the need to write it? I’ve reflected on whether a central reason is that Paul knows that these Galatian believers, under the persuasive pressure of the Jewish false teachers with their emphasis on keeping the Law, are beginning to view success in the Christian life in a fleshly way. What can we see? What laws are we keeping? How are we looking? How are we perceived by others? Sound familiar? Fleshly metrics are our default setting. However, Paul wants them and us to put on a different pair of spectacles through which to view progress.
Rejecting what comes Naturally to us
In our Staff Team meetings, where together we review and report back on our weeks, we have changed the question we ask each other. We used to ask each other ‘what did we do this week?’ The conversation, in all honesty, was often monotonous and more often than not led to either pride or uneasiness depending on how busy we each were. The diary was in the driving seat.
Rejoicing in what comes supernaturally to us.
Now we ask each other a different question. Where do we see the Spirit at work in the lives of God’s people? It leads to a much more fascinating conversation. We now deliberately with the eyes of faith look for signs of the Spirit at work in people’s lives. Who is showing a newfound appetite for God’s Word that wasn’t there before? Who has made a costly decision to be obedient to Jesus? Who has discovered a new joy in serving? Who visited a brother or sister in need? Who is evidently growing in gentleness and humility?
These things might not make the BBC News at 10 but be assured they are showing up on the newsfeed of heaven as little tell-tale signs of the invading power of the reigning King Jesus.
All this reminds me of a scene in Shrek. It’s the one where Donkey and Shrek need to cross the bridge to get to the Castle where Princess Fiona is trapped. Donkey is scared and unwilling to cross. He screams the whole way over doubting his ability to keep going. He thinks crossing is futile and disaster guaranteed. What he doesn’t realise is that Shrek has pushed him all the way over to the other side. That’ll do Donkey. That'll do. Sometimes we don’t realise just how far we’ve come and need others to point it out to reassure us.
Some of my favourite conversations with people are ones where I get to point out signs of the Spirit in someone’s life. I call them a “Do you see how far you’ve come?” moment. It’s one of the joys of ministry that you get a front row seat to see God at work in people’s lives.
The truth is that we can all enter that joy. In whom do you see the fruit of the Spirit manifesting itself? Why not encourage them by affirming it.
Kristin Couch in her profound little book Deep Roots Good Fruit writes this;
“I like to imagine myself as a treasure hunter, turning over stories from my past, and sifting through life’s mundane moments for marks of the divine. The Spirit’s work appears in the margins—in life’s crevices with common people.”
It’s a testing time of year for many of us. Let’s allow our Heavenly Father to remind us what true progress looks like.
