“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)
Do you know the fruit of the Spirit song? When my kids wee toddlers/preschoolers, we went to a congregation where the kids would sing this song multiple times on any given Sunday. The words would cycle over and over in my head. It was kind of annoying, until one day it hit me: “These are the exact things I should be showing to my kids. When was the last time I had intentionally shown love or joy to my kids?”
I started praying to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in my life – all of them. I would say each one and think how that would look in my day to day life. And then I decided I should just choose one or two to focus on for a day. Patience, self control, and gentleness were my go to qualities I wanted to show my children each day – and the hardest.
Throughout the years, I’ve continued to pray for gentleness. Anyone who knows me would say I’m already gentle, calm, and peaceful, but at home I can whip out a harsh answer faster than my oldest can say, “It’s not fair!” And I am not proud of that.
But is there more to it than just asking God to give me those fruits? Maybe on a good day when there’s no whining or crying from the kids, no lonely longings for friendship, and no stress to get it all done, we can share the Spirit-filled qualities with others.
But what about on your bad days? Are you patient standing in a long line when you’re in a hurry because you have too much stuff to do? Are you kind to someone who has previously hurt your feelings? Do you have self-control when you’re lonely and there’s a donut shop on your way home, and you can numb out all your feelings of loneliness with filling up on fried sugar and sprinkles?
I love the following story that illustrates such truth. I’ve seen this many times on Facebook, but I have no idea who the original author is, maybe you’ve seen it too.
“You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into youor shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.
Why did you spill the coffee?
‘Well because someone bumped into me, of course!’
Wrong answer.
You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.
Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.
Whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out.
Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
So we have to ask ourselves…’What’s in my cup?’
When life gets tough, what spills over?
Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility?
Or anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions?
You choose!
Today let’s work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, and kindness, gentleness and love for others.”
We spill over onto others whatever we have been putting into our cups. In order for the good things to overflow out of us, we must be feeding ourselves with good things. And we have the greatest source of God-breathed good things to fill up on right in our homes. It’s the Word of God!
And here is the key to bearing good fruit. It’s not working harder or striving for perfection. And it’s not marking each fruit of the Spirit off a checklist as you do good deeds throughout the day. The key to bearing good fruit is this: abiding in Christ.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” John 15:5-6 (NKJV)
Jesus is the vine to our branch. His life blood flows up through the vine and into us. Without that supply, we are nothing but a withered up stick laying on the ground, unable to produce any fruit. But when we fill up on the word of God, talk to God in prayer, and practice living a Godly life, those Spirit like qualities overflow out of our lives. They are the fruits that people will see hanging from our branches, ready to be picked and shared with others. We only can share these fruits if we abide in Christ, and we become a reflection of him.
And they must be shared in order to glorify God. We don’t enjoy the fruit of God’s Spirit and then keep them to ourselves. Have you known someone who embodied Spirit-like qualities that stayed alone, never sharing them? The gladness is in sharing them.
We share the fruit with others because God shares them with us. Does God love you? Does he find joy in you? Is He peaceful and patient with you? Has God been good, kind, and gentle with you? Is he faithful to keep his promises? Is God self-controlled when we sin?
Here is a list of each of the fruits along with a verse telling of that quality in God. As we see each of these qualities in our God and how He shows them to us, then we can reflect these characteristics to others.
LOVE – Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
JOY – Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
PEACE – Psalm 85:8
I will hear what God the Lord will speak,
For He will speak peace
To His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn back to folly.
PATIENCE – 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT)
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
KINDNESS – Ephesians 2:6-7 (NLT)
For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
GOODNESS – Romans 2:4
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
FAITHFULNESS – Deuteronomy 7:9
Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
GENTLENESS – Isaiah 40:11
He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.
SELF-CONTROL – Joel 2:13
So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
I pray that each one of you reading this will not see this list of words as a checklist, another set of rules to follow, or another reason for striving. We do not bear the fruit of the Spirit by striving, but by abiding in Christ. We learn from Christ, see his ways, lay resentment, sadness, confusion, anger, pride, sin, loneliness, harshness, and judgement at his feet, and walk away refreshed. We share these Godly fruits with others because He gave them to us first!
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Great message!
Thank you!