What Does Your Fruit Look Like?

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:25

LOVE...benevolence, affection, charity

JOY...gladness, rejoice, happy

PEACE...harmony & security

LONG-SUFFERING...patience, endurance, steadfastness

GENTLENESS...integrity & benignity

GOODNESS...uprightness of heart & life

FAITH...conviction of truth, fidelity, trust

MEEKNESS...mildness & humility

TEMPERANCE...self-control & moderation

These are the fruit of the Spirit {Galatians 5:22-23} in the King James with definitions from the Greek. These are the things that the Spirit enables us to be if we walk with him on a day to day basis. If we try to be theses things on our own we will eventually fail or give up. We must ask for the Spirit to enable us. We are given the seeds of these fruit and we must water them in the Spirit to make them grow and bear even more fruit. With an abundance of fruit, not only do you have enough for yourself, you have enough to give away.

The starting point is you. Are you being all those things{the fruit above} to yourself? Moreover are you allowing the Spirit to be all those things to you? Accept the fruitfulness of the Spirit for they are the character of God. This is who God is to you. So let the fruit grow in you, cultivate it and keep it watered. Multiply it and give it to others. Don't let your fruit dry out. Water it with the Spirit daily.

Don't be a fake fruit Christian. Fake fruit is acting out of pride, false humility or manipulation. That is not the Spirit. It is candy coated destructive behavior and it is not right. It does not glorify the Lord. We as Christian don't need to be fake if we are walking in the Spirit. The Spirit enables us to be the fruit beyond our human capabilities. That is the power! The power to be loving when you don't want to be. The power to be self-controlled when you want to get drunk. The power to be happy and content in hard economic times. The power to have peace that passes all understanding. The power to be kind to the lady that cut in front of you. The power to reach out to the lost. And on and on!

So remain in Christ and water your fruit. I remember a friend saying it like this "Bear fruit, much fruit and fruit that remains." Don't let it dry out and don't be fake. Also don't forget to feed yourself. The more you walk in the fruit of the Spirit the more it becomes second nature. And isn't that really what we want? The nature of God not the nature of man. So accept it, ask for it and do it! Walk it and share it!

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing....This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples...I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that remains." John 15:4-5,8,16