Jessica Thompson - How God Loves Us: 40 Days to Discovering His Character in the Fruit of the Spirit

Since time immemorial, the concept of the fruit of the Spirit has been crammed into self-help language, reminding us that we can never be enough and turning what was meant to be a loving relationship with the Trinity into the Christianity Olympics. Jessica gently removes this popular Scripture from its place on the Do-It-Yourself Shelf and flips it on its head, as she says in the introduction, its the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of trying harder. I cannot recommend this devotional enough for anyone who desires to go deeply into the Word to discover how God changes you with power and delight.

ERIN MOON

Resident Bible scholar on The Bible Binge podcast and author of Memento Mori, Every Broken Thing, and O Heavy Lightness

Many of us want to experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives but are unsure of what that really means. If youre like me, then you wind up spinning your wheels to cultivate more fruit in your life only to end up exhausted and depleted because we are going about it all wrong. Prepare to be wowed and encouraged as you walk through this forty-day devotional. Im so thankful for Jessica Thompsons How God Loves Us, which points us to Jesus, is immersed in the gospel, and reminds us to walk in the Spirit.

LINDSEY A. HOLCOMB

Coauthor of God Made All of Me, God Made Me in His Image, Rid of My Disgrace, and Is It My Fault?

Jessica Thompson takes us on a glorious and refreshing tour of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentlenessexamining how the triune God displays each in His love for us. Thoroughly biblical, packed with good news, and served in perfect proportions, How God Loves Us serves the fruit of the Spirit as a feast for the soul.

ERIC SCHUMACHER

Pastor, podcaster, coauthor of Worthy: Celebrating the Value of Women and Jesus & Gender

Few voices have influenced my understanding of and gratitude for the gospel like Jessicas. What she writes, I read, because I know it will be anchored in what Christ has done for us and how His grace transforms us. Well, shes done it again in How God Loves Us. This devotional frees us from striving to produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives and frees us to behold Christ, who perfectly embodied the fruit, and whose Spirit manifests His character in us. Jessica reminds us that in beholding Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become more like Him!

JEANNIE CUNNION

Author of Dont Miss Out: Daring to Believe Life Is Better with the Holy Spirit

Setting our hearts on Gods unwavering character is the only thing that will get us through this age of fracture and disorientation. This book is our blueprint. With clarity, humor, and hard-won wisdom, Jessica Thompson invites us to lay down our striving and simply abide in Gods love. What might happen if we truly remembered who God is? A revolution of goodness. A shared hope.

SHANNAN MARTIN

Author of The Ministry of Ordinary Places and Falling Free

Its so easy to get swept away with this me-me-me culture we live in. As much as we want to focus on God more than ourselves, its our nature to center our lives, thoughtseven our faitharound me. If you (like me) are in need of a redirection in your focusif you (like me) need help setting your gaze on the glory of our God, this book is for you. Jess turns away from a me-centered reading of fruit of the Spirit in order to reveal the goodness of God in each characteristic. You will leave each days reading with a sweeter sense of who God is and His deep love for you.

KATIE ORR

Author of Secrets of the Happy Soul and the FOCUSed15 Bible studies

2022 by
JESSICA THOMPSON

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, represented by Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked ASV are taken from the American Standard Version.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLV are taken from the New Life Version. Copyright Christian Literature International. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible, Holman CSB, and HCSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Edited by Annette LaPlaca
Interior design: Ragont Design
Cover design: Erik M. Peterson
Cover painting: NocturneBlue and Gold by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Author photo: Jessica Delgado Photography

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Thompson, Jessica, 1975- author.

Title: How God loves us : 40 days to discovering his character in the fruit of the Spirit / Jessica Thompson.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Can it be that the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 are the characteristics of God-and He loves us with those attributes? In 40 readings designed for daily devotions, Jessica Thompson takes you across the whole Bible to reveal the loving character of the triune God-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021038695 (print) | LCCN 2021038696 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802424372 (paperback) | ISBN 9780802499974 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802400000

Subjects: LCSH: Fruit of the Spirit. | God (Christianity)--Love. | Bible--Criticism, interpretation, etc. | BISAC: RELIGION / Christian Living / Personal Growth | RELIGION / Christian Theology / Soteriology

Classification: LCC BV4501.3 .T4726 2022 (print) | LCC BV4501.3 (ebook) | DDC 234/.13--dc23