The Fruitful Life

I just started reading the book, The Fruitful Life, by Jerry Bridges. My community group is going the book together and I'm anticipating it a lot. Here's a small portion from the preface about why the book was written.

Another reason for revisiting the fruit of the Spirit is that I often hear a certain possessiveness today about "my spiritual gifts." Certainly, we can be thankful that in the last generation there has been a thriving literature on spiritual gifts. But, again, sometimes there is a self-focus for the gifts. We use "assessment instruments" to nail down what our gifts are and seek to uses them in a way that can tend toward personal fulfillment. The danger is that gifts of the Spirit will be separated from the fruit of the Spirit. This can lead to prideful ambition rather than humble, loving service. Sinclair B. Ferguson writes that the fruit of the Spirit "should be distinguished from the gifts of the Spirit, but ought never to be absent in their exercise. For without love, and the humility which accompanies it...the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit is thwarted."