Are You Tending The Fruit Of The Spirit?

If you plant an apple tree, what do you expect to pick in a few months? Apples!

What if you plant a grapevine? You expect to harvest grapes!

And if you find a wild blackberry bush? You’re looking for blackberries!

Whatever you planted is what you expect to see growing, and it’s what you look forward to harvesting at the end of the season.

The same goes with our Christian faith. The Holy Spirit plants some seeds in us that He looks forward to seeing grow and develop over the course of our lives.

In Galatians 5:22-23, some very familiar verses, Paul describes nine different fruit of the Spirit that should be growing in us. If they are, you’ll see them developing and getting bigger and stronger. If they’re not, we’re not helping tend the garden of our hearts. Imagine what the fields would look like if an Iowa farmer didn’t water his crops, pull the weeds and give them all the sunshine they need to grow strong and healthy. The finished crop would be all tiny and shriveled up, of no use to anyone come harvest time.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23



When we get saved and the Spirit begins to work in us, He plants the seeds of these nine fruits in our hearts. But it’s up to us to make the choice every single day to be more like Jesus Christ. He is our example in everything, and as we read the Bible, pray and go to church, we take on His qualities and characteristics, so we become more like Him.

So what might these fruit of the Spirit look like in our everyday lives?
Love: I will care for the wellbeing of others.
Joy: I will happy no matter the circumstances.
Peace: I won’t be afraid because I trust in God.
Longsuffering: I will be patient.
Gentleness: I will be kind to everyone.
Goodness: I will do what God says is right.
Faith: I will not give up.
Meekness: I will put the needs and wants of others before myself.
Temperance: I will keep control of my thoughts and actions.

The Holy Spirit plants the fruit, nourishes it and makes it grow strong and healthy. But what are you doing to tend it on a daily basis?

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