Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread.

I'm Amy Boucher Pai and I called our reading Christ's Character.

Following a challenging tour in Afghanistan, Scott, a sergeant in the British Army, fell apart.

He remembered, I was in a dark place.

But when he discovered Jesus and began following him, his life changed radically.

Now he seeks to share the love of Christ with others, especially veterans with whom he competes in the Invictus Games,

an international event for wounded and injured members and veterans of the armed forces.

For Scott, reading the Bible, praying and listening to worship music, grounds him before going to the games.

God then helps him to reflect the character of Jesus and show kindness, gentleness, and grace to the fellow veterans competing there.

Scott names here some of the fruit of the spirit that the apostle Paul

wrote about to the believers in Galatia. They struggled under the influence of false teachers,

so Paul sought to encourage them to stay true to God and His grace, being led by the Spirit.

By doing so, they would then produce the Spirit's fruit,

love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

With God's Spirit living within us, we too will burst forth with the Spirit's goodness and love.

We too will show gentleness and kindness to those who surround us.

Our passage from the Bible today is from Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 through 26.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love.

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself.

If you bite and devour each other, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

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