A New Character

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Galatians 5:22-23

Through his word Christ removes the heart and mind’s old routines of thought, feeling, action, imagination, conceptualization, belief, inference and puts in their place something else: his thoughts, his attitudes, his beliefs, his ways of seeing and interpreting things, his words. He washes out our minds, and in the place of confusion and falsehood—or hatred, suspicion and fear, to speak of emotions—he brings clarity, truth, love, confidence and hopefulness.
So where there was fear, there is hope; where there was suspicion, there is confidence; where there was hate, there is love; and all are based on a new understanding of God conveyed into us by his word. Vessels of wrath become vessels of patience and kindness. Where there was covetousness and lust, there is generosity and courteous consideration. Where there was manipulation and possessiveness, there is trust toward God and encouragement of others toward liberty and individuality. We now have the character to which listening for God’s voice is natural.
Willard, Dallas. Hearing God Through the Year. N. p. Print.