Good morning. Fruit is a delightful word. Fruit promises something tasty, usually sweet, nutritious and yet fun. Fruit is a pleasure to be enjoyed.
You, oh Christian person, have been carefully selected, nurtured, and prepared to be fruitful. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last… John 15:16
What kind of fruit would you like to be? There is nothing like a cool, crisp apple on a fall day. It is a sweet joy to savor the first strawberries of the new season. Even the tart berries picked from bushes in the forest make extra tasty pies.
The joy of belonging to Jesus includes this truth: you don’t have to choose one type of fruit above all others, the Holy Spirit has made and is making certain that your fruitfulness is ready to be enjoyed.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
This verse doesn’t suggest that you need to get busy and hoe out the weeds, bring as much water as is needed, or struggle with any chore to make fruit happen. Your fruitfulness is of the Spirit of God living in you. It is His presence that makes you sweet, and savory, and delightful. The fruit listed are wonderful traits of Christian character that become increasingly obvious as we live each day with our Lord. They are His fruit not ours.
Be sweet today, or tart, or tangy. But give praise to God for the fruit of the Spirit increasingly revealed in your life.
Vern