The Holy Spirit's Fruit: Not Mine But His

Paul talks about this in Romans 7 verses 18 to 24 where he says things with which we can all agree and totally identify concerning ourselves. It is the way we often feel as we struggle to do what God want us to do.
“I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
It is no longer us doing it but sin which lives in us. That is very interesting. Sin is doing it, not us. We are, in fact, righteous so it cannot be us. However, the sin which lives in us is causing an awful lot of trouble because we desperately want to be good. We want everything we do to please God. The problem is that we do not do the good we want to do and the evil we do not want to do we do. We are backed into a corner, often riddled with guilt but unable to solve the problem.
So people who are preaching that we should be doing this, that and the other once we become Christians do not help because the list they give us of what we should be doing we cannot possibly do, and the list of things they give us of what we should not be doing we cannot stop doing. We may even wonder how they are managing. We may think they are living in a totally different dimension.
In fact, we should be able to conquer in our Christian lives because we now serve a new Master, Jesus. We have died to sin. We are new. We belong to the family of God. God even regards us as righteous when we do wrong. Surely we should have the courtesy to live His way when He has done so much for us. We do want to afford God that courtesy. We are, in actual fact, as Paul said in Romans 7 verse 25, in our minds slaves to God’s law but in our sinful nature slaves to the law of sin. Our minds follow God and live His way but our sinful nature does not do the same.
In other words, our minds are the sweetest, most adorable, nice, honest, good living people with whom everyone would want to be. We never shout at people or argue. We always react the way we should react to outward pressure. We are always happy. We are slaves to God’s law.
However, outwardly we lose our tempers, nag our children, yell at our husbands and wives or our parents, often act obnoxiously, do the things we know are wrong and find it difficult to live God’s way. No wonder Paul says he is wretched. No wonder he helplessly and desperately asks who can rescue him from this body which is subject to death.
The answer? Stop regarding the fruit of the Spirit as ours. It is His fruit which will show through us when we are filled with Him.