Galatians 5:22–23 (NLT) tells us, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Peace is something we all want, but if we’re not careful, we’ll spend a good portion of our lives looking for it in the wrong places. We think we’ll finally have peace when the bills are paid, the family is getting along, our health is good, and everything around us is running smoothly. Those are certainly wonderful things to enjoy, but the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit isn’t dependent on having a trouble-free life. God has given us something far greater than that.
01 — The Fruit: What Does It Mean?
Most of us associate peace with the absence of trouble, confusion, or conflict. When everything is quiet and no one is bothering us, we say we’re at peace. But let one unexpected problem come through the door, and all that calmness can disappear with a quickness. If our peace depends on everything going the way we want it to, we’re going to spend a lot of time being unsettled. Life simply doesn’t cooperate with us that way.
The peace that the Holy Spirit produces is grounded in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 (NLT) tells us, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” This is where we must begin. Through Christ, we are no longer separated from God because of our sins. We’ve been brought into a right relationship with Him, and because we belong to Him, we can learn to rest in His care. This doesn’t mean we won’t have problems. It means we don’t have to face them without the confidence that our Heavenly Father is with us.
02 — We See It in Jesus Christ
Mark 4 gives us a beautiful picture of the peace that comes from complete trust in God. Jesus and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee when a fierce storm came upon them. The wind was blowing, waves were breaking into the boat, and the disciples were terrified. Some of these men were experienced fishermen, so they understood how dangerous the situation had become. Yet, while all this was happening, Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat.
The disciples woke Him and asked whether He cared that they were about to drown. Mark 4:39 (NLT) tells us, “When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Silence! Be still!’ Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.” Jesus wasn’t unaware of the storm, and He certainly wasn’t powerless against it. His response showed the authority He possessed and the complete confidence He had in His Father. He then asked the disciples why they were afraid and whether they still had no faith. They had been so overwhelmed by what was happening around them that they had lost sight of Who was in the boat with them.
Now, we must understand that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we don’t possess His authority over the wind and the sea. But His example teaches us something about trusting our Heavenly Father. We can become so occupied with the size of our problems that we forget the greatness of the God we serve. The storm may be real, and the danger may be real, but neither is greater than our God.
03 — The Fruit in Action: A Biblical Example
Hannah’s experience in 1 Samuel 1 gives us another picture of what it means to place our burdens before the Lord. Hannah desperately wanted a child, but she had been unable to conceive. To make matters worse, Peninnah, her husband’s other wife, continually provoked her because she had no children. Scripture tells us that Hannah was deeply distressed. She wept and couldn’t eat. This wasn’t a small disappointment. It was a painful situation that had weighed heavily on her heart for years.
One day, Hannah went to the Tabernacle and poured out her heart to God. She prayed with such anguish that Eli the priest initially thought she was drunk. But Hannah explained that she was a woman with a deeply troubled spirit who had been pouring out her soul before the Lord. After Eli spoke words of blessing over her, 1 Samuel 1:18 (NLT) tells us, “Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad.”
I love what we learn from this account. Hannah hadn’t received the child she was praying for at that moment. Her circumstances hadn’t changed, but after taking her burden to God, she was able to go on without being overcome by the same sorrow. Scripture doesn’t specifically say that Hannah was demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, but her experience gives us a beautiful example of the relief and confidence that can come when we entrust our deepest concerns to the Lord. She didn’t have the answer in her hands, but she had placed her petition before the One who could answer it.
04 — When the Holy Spirit Grows This Fruit in Us
We have to be careful about allowing worry to become such a familiar part of our lives that we begin to accept it as normal. Some of us will pray about a situation, get up from our knees, and then spend the rest of the day turning that same problem over and over in our minds. We imagine what might happen, what someone might say, and how we’re going to handle things if they don’t work out. Before we know it, we’ve worn ourselves out over something that hasn’t even happened.
Philippians 4:6–7 (NLT) instructs us, “6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
Paul is teaching us that prayer must become our first response rather than something we turn to after we’ve exhausted ourselves with worry. When we take our concerns to God, we’re acknowledging that we need His help and that we trust Him to provide it. The Holy Spirit helps us to keep our minds anchored in God’s Word instead of allowing fear and uncertainty to run away with our thoughts. This doesn’t mean we’ll never feel anxious about anything. It means we don’t have to surrender ourselves to those feelings. We can keep bringing our concerns before our Heavenly Father and trust Him to help us through whatever we’re facing.
Isaiah 26:3 (NLT) tells us that God will keep in perfect peace those whose thoughts are fixed on Him because they trust in Him. This is something we must practice. We can’t spend all our time feeding our minds with everything that frightens and troubles us and expect to enjoy God’s peace. We must make room for His Word, listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and be willing to surrender those things that are beyond our control. The more we learn to trust God, the less power our circumstances will have to rob us of the peace He has given us through Jesus Christ.
05 — What This Fruit Looks Like in Our Lives Today
Life can throw some things at us that we never saw coming. A doctor gives us news we weren’t expecting. A relationship begins to fall apart. There’s a financial problem, trouble on the job, or something happening with our children that keeps us awake at night. We can pray about these things and still find ourselves struggling with worry. But we must remember that the Holy Spirit is living within us, and He is helping us to grow in our trust and dependence on God. We don’t have to know how everything is going to turn out before we can have peace about placing it in His hands.
And sometimes, the peace of God will help us recognize when we need to stop trying to control everything and everybody around us. We can’t make people do what is right, and we can’t arrange every circumstance to suit our desires. What we can do is seek God’s wisdom, obey His Word, and handle the responsibilities He’s placed before us. Peace doesn’t mean we sit back and do nothing about our problems. It means we do what is right and trust God with what we cannot control.
Jesus Christ tells us in John 14:27 (NLT) that He is leaving us with a gift, peace of mind and heart. He also tells us that the peace He gives is a gift the world cannot give. We should think about that. The world can offer us temporary comfort, but it cannot give us the peace that comes from knowing we belong to God. As we continue to yield to the Holy Spirit, we’ll learn that peace isn’t found in having everything our way. It’s found in trusting the One who holds our lives in His hands.
Examining Our Walk
- Are we allowing worry about things we cannot control to occupy more of our thoughts than God’s promises?
- When trouble comes, do we seek God’s guidance first, or do we exhaust ourselves trying to figure everything out on our own?
- What situations in our lives do we need to surrender more fully to the Holy Spirit so that His peace can grow within us?
Closing Scripture — Colossians 3:15 (NLT)
Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“The Spirit’s Fruit — Peace”, written by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to encouraging and inspiring Christian Women to live boldly through God’s Word.
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