Megha Rai

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." — Galatians 5:22–23 (NIV) Kindness is one of those virtues that everyone appreciates but often misunderstands. Our culture tends to equate kindness with being nice—always agreeable, avoiding conflict, and making sure no one is ever offended. While being gracious is certainly part of kindness, biblical kindness goes much deeper. It isn't driven by the desire to please people; it is driven by love for God and genuine concern for others. Jesus perfectly embodied kindness, yet He wasn't always "nice." He welcomed the outcast, touched the leper, fed the hungry, and forgave those burdened by guilt. Children were drawn to Him. The broken found hope in Him. No one who came to Him with a humble and repentant heart ever walked away without experiencing His compassion. Yet the same Jesus also overtur...

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." — Ephesians 4:2 (NIV) When I hear the word patience , my mind immediately thinks about the big things in life—waiting for an answered prayer, waiting for healing, waiting for a new opportunity, or waiting for God to open the next door. But recently, God has been teaching me that patience isn't only revealed in life's long waiting seasons. It's revealed in the five-minute moments. The traffic light that refuses to turn green. The colleague who asks the same question again. The driver who cuts into your lane. The project that doesn't get recognized. The child who interrupts your work. The spouse who forgets something you already reminded them about. Five minutes. That's often all it takes for impatience to reveal what's really happening inside our hearts. I've come to realize something: Pressure doesn't create impatience. It reveals it. Whe...

"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You." — Isaiah 26:3 (NIV) Every morning, before the sun rises, I never find myself wondering, "What if it doesn't come up today?" I've never stayed awake worrying that tomorrow will remain dark. Why? Because I've seen the sun rise every single day of my life. My confidence isn't based on seeing tomorrow's sunrise. It's built on witnessing yesterday's faithfulness. One day, while watching the sunrise, I felt the Lord gently ask me: "If you can trust the sun to rise every morning because you've seen it do thousands of times, why is it sometimes harder to trust Me, the One who created the sun?" That question stayed with me. Isaiah tells us that God keeps in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on Him because they trust Him. Notice that peace doesn't come from knowing what tomorrow holds. It comes from knowing the One who already hold...

Joy Is Cultivated by Noticing Ordinary Graces "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights..." — James 1:17 (NIV) Have you ever noticed how quickly we stop seeing the blessings we once prayed for? The house that once felt like an answered prayer becomes "too small." The job we once thanked God for becomes "just work." The family dinner becomes routine. Even the sunrise becomes ordinary because we've seen it a thousand times. I wonder if one of the greatest thieves of joy isn't suffering. Perhaps it's familiarity . When something becomes familiar, we stop noticing it. Lately, God has been gently teaching me to slow down and notice what I call ordinary graces. My morning cup of coffee. The Book resting on my table. The tall trees outside my balcony that remind me of God's majesty. The laughter of my children echoing through the house. The quiet moment before the ...

  Love – Fruit Is Never for the Tree "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind... And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." — Matthew 22:37–39 (NIV) When I think of fruit, one simple truth always amazes me. An apple tree never eats its own apples. A mango tree never enjoys its own mangoes. The fruit it bears is always for someone else. Isn't that interesting? Then why do we often think the Fruit of the Spirit is primarily for us? When Paul speaks about love as the very first fruit of the Spirit, I don't believe he's inviting us to become people who feel more loving. He's inviting us to become people through whom others experience the love of God. That led me to another question. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, why didn't He simply say, "Love one another"? Instead, He answered, "Love the Lord your God..." Then ... "Love...

Understanding the Fruit of the Spirit "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." — Galatians 5:22–23 Welcome to Day 1 of our 10-day journey! Before we begin exploring each of the nine characteristics listed in Galatians, I wanted to share a little of my own journey. When I first came to faith, I genuinely wanted to become more loving, more patient, more kind, and more self-controlled. I thought that if I simply tried harder, prayed a little more, and was more disciplined, I would eventually become the person God wanted me to be. But the harder I tried in my own strength, the more I noticed my failures. I would lose my patience. I would struggle to show kindness. I would become anxious instead of peaceful. I found myself asking, "Lord, why is this so hard?" One day, my prayer changed. Instead of praying, "Lord, help me do bette...

  10 Days with the Fruit of the Spirit "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." — Galatians 5:22–23 Dear Readers, I'm so excited to invite you on a special 10-day devotional journey together! Beginning Wednesday , July 15 , we'll spend ten days reflecting on one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture— the Fruit of the Spirit . While many of us are familiar with these nine fruits, this series is about much more than simply knowing them. It's about inviting the Holy Spirit to cultivate them within us, so they become evident in our everyday lives. Our journey will look like this: Day 1: Understanding the Fruit of the Spirit—what it means, why it matters, and how these fruits are produced in the life of every believer. Days 2–10: Each day we'll focus on one fruit—Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Ge...

“Then you will know which way to go,  since you have never been this way before …and the Lord will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3:4-5). New roads, new opportunities sounds fun right? Not always. With new comes a fear of unknown. Our generation is more adventurous and we all love exploring new things. New restaurants, new jobs, new places. Even some of you might as well write in your resumes that you love making new friends and meeting new people. For me newness is not so much fun as it is an uncomfort to me. I like my life to be stable and not so much adventurous. I have hard time coping with life changes and that too if there are major ones like motherhood, nurturing those little ones as they grow old, seeing their mood change and their ways change. Sometimes I even cry this prayer in my marriage that I want to go back to my dating days where we had more time just for each other. But the truth is that life changes every single day. We change, our thinking, our way of livin...

 " Stop striving and know that I am God" My days are super chaotic and messy and there is a long list that keeps on getting added in the already messy days I am a busy Mama of two. I am thankful to all the people including grand parents who are nurturing my kids really well still it's a lot of anxiety that a Mama goes through on a daily basis and I am anxious of failing. I am a wife and my first calling is to serve my husband and anxiety creeps in when I think of how difficult it is to nurture your family with love and care.  I am working a 12hrs job away from home and kids which I am thinking to quit eventually feeling like a coward. I am also in the process of exploring new prospects in teaching which will keep me close to family and also help me financially independent. All of that above can make your soul feel like shrinking. Anxiety creeps in but wait, there is a cure for anxiety and that is Praise. Praise is a medicine for every single anxious thought that you are t...

" Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him, do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes" Have you ever been in a situation when you have to chose from two options and both of them seems morally right to you. This is the worst situation to be in. It is so easy  to chose when you have one right and one wrong option in front of you. You chose what is right and move forward in peace.  But the difficulty is when both the ways are right and you get to chose the best from them. This is recently happening with me deciding my next career move and also balancing my family ( I am a new mom). Both the options are right. With the family expansion, the financial responsibility has increased on me and my husband shoulders and it only makes sense to increase our source of income. On the other hand, the mama in me is under a guilt of leaving our kids and working at the age when they need parental love and nurturing. Sometimes life throws ...

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it." Last few days were heavy on my soul. Every where I turned to find comfort finally made me more dipressed and lonely. First of all let me tell you, this is a perfect season where everything is well in my life. I am blessed with a wonderful husband, 2 sweet kiddos and recently my career also kick started with a new opportunity landing up on my lap by the grace of god. And most importantly, when this part of the world where I live is chaotic with second wave of the pandemic, god is keeping my family healthy and safe. I am filled with all the thankfulness in my heart for our great good god. Yet here I was today trembling with fear and uncertainty over everything in the future.  I was deep in tears and cried out to lord praying one thing. "Lord please let my life like this for the ...

"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities."  Isaiah 54:2-3 Fear, this one word has held me back more times in my life than I care to admit in this post. Fear that I will not give enough time to my family if I spread my wings, people in my life will not understand my calling and I will be discouraged, fear of failure and rejection and list goes on and on and on. Sounds familiar to you all! Yes it is. We all hold ourselves back in living a truly called life because we have all these fears in our hearts. Yet god ask us to trust him and spread our horizons. Is not this amazing that the one who is all powerful and owner of this universe wants us to trust him and have faith in him and then he is asking us to enlarge our tents? The above verse is my favourite whenever ...

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."(ESV) I could sense a deep anxiety within me.I was peaceful and quiet from outside, busy with my daily chores yet something inside me was troubled. My soul felt heavy and I almost felt teary. It was the feeling of going through some tough trails. I lost my job during the pandemic, I was deeply concerned about the turn that my career will take now. I was deeply worried about my future, about my kid, about our provisions. More than that I was concerned not being able to share the financial burdens of my husband. I was concerned about my ministry. Lord has put in me a heart and a desire to minister but how in the world I will do it. One after another thoughts were piling up and finally guilt took me over.  Despite every effort I could see lif...

"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah 1:5 Last week was a series of events which made me feel not enough. First during a conversation with a long time friend, we got on to a conversation regarding my faith in the lord. We have known each other for almost 10 years during our first job but then life happened and we lost contact with each other. I was not a believer back then. Lord crossed our paths again and I shared my faith in the lord with him which raised so many doubts and questions in his heart. He asked me so many questions which I tried to answer in the most honest way, however a feeling of unworthiness swept over me because I still don't know lord fully. There are still aspects and character of him that I need to understand which made me realise that I lack knowledge about the lord whom I love with all my heart, mind and soul. The seco...

Those who work their land will have abundant food,but those who chase fantasies have no sense: proverbs 12:11 I love fantasy. It's a delight for me to watch a Disney movie with my kid on weekends, to pick up a fantasy novel and read it and imagine the characters playing right in front of me. I am visually creative so a good book or a disney animation fascinates me. While there is nothing wrong in watching these fliks ( that teaches us so much about courage and faith), but I realised that spending too much of your emotions and wanting a fairy tale life for yourself is something which is not from God.  Let's face the truth.  Life is not fairy tale. Everything is dependent on all the hard work and good work that we put for the kingdom of god. We reap what we sow. While it's important to have some of those qualities that a princess character teaches us like kindness, faith, courage, to get the fruit of these qualities we have to practice them in real world.  However if we cha...

"For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring." Acts of the Apostles 17:28 The year 2020 has left all of us devastated in one or the other way. While the global pandemic infected numbers are increasing day by day with no end date and no vaccine, there are many of us who are being impacted indirectly. Some of us are safe and healthy ( praise lord for that) but have lost our jobs due to economic slowdown, have been feeling discouraged and lonely, plans that we made are now on hold, increased monotony due to locked up in our homes. None of us is untouched and few of us are asking where is lord in all of this. From past few days I am also wondering the same when lord give me this verse to meditate on. "For in him we live, we move and we exist". He is not some distant one whom you cannot reach. He is into your very existence.  He is with you when you move, when you think, when you sip coffee from your mug. He is watchi...

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 Evenings are suppose to be our resting time. Evening is suppose to be calm. However, at my home evening is a busy affair. Usually I have piles of work in the evening. Right from folding of the laundry, home schooling my kid, working on some personal projects and preparing tea and snacks for my family members. Evening just like day feels like running. I didn't know my husband notices much about this busy schedule of mine because he has never been verbal about it. But yesterday, my husband offered me evening rest. While he offered me to go and watch a movie with my kid ( along with a packet of popcorns), he also offered to do all the evening chores for me ( ofcourse I felt guilty like a nice wife for him doing everything). Just like we need physical rest and we appreciate if someone offers us that kind of rest once in a while, we should never ignore our spiritual rest that only our ...

" Be still and know I am the lord" Stillness does not come easy to many of us. We live in a culture which calls us to be continuously running proving and multi tasking in order to prove our worth. It's hard to stop and catch a breath for yourself in a world which is chaotic at every stage. I am people driven. I have a long formed habit to do things in a people pleasing way. I compromise and always try to prove to people that I am worthy of their acceptance. I work hard long stretch and yet by the end of the day feels like unaccomplished and always a failure. I know sisters I am not the only one. This is both an encouragement and heart breaking to know that I am not alone in this. Heart breaking because I don't want this to my fellow siaters. Encouraging because I am not the only one struggling in this area. While there is nothing wrong in doing things for others. Rather Bible tells us always to keep others interests above our own. The same Bible also tells us that we ...