DAILY WORD

Everyone has a birthday. Each one of us, at some moment in time, came forth from our mother’s womb, at which point our eyes were opened, our lungs filled with air for the first time, and our sojourn on this earth began. Although we don’t remember this transformative event, we know that the birthing process is an inevitable part of what it means to be human.

In the same way, Jesus is describing a spiritual birth that is an inevitable part of what it means to be a child of God; “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit.” The gospel of John begins with a promise that “to all who receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Although sacramentally this rebirth occurs at our baptism, the new spiritual identity that we receive must be appropriated into our lives and cultivated daily. To cultivate the spiritual life we have been given means that we are intentional about nurturing the spiritual dimension of our lives. The apostle Paul reminds us that if we sow to flesh, we will reap from the flesh, but if we sow to the spirit, we reap from the spirit (Galatians 6:8).

To be born of the Spirit, to sow to the Spirit, to live in the Spirit ultimately means that we will reap the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What spiritual fruit is being cultivated in your life today?

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