Good fruit: Spiritual Growth in and out of Season

The bible describes one of the fruit of the Spirit as goodness. The Holy Spirit within us can somehow produce good fruit. This is contrasted with the fruit of the flesh. If we "live in the Spirit" we will not exhibit fleshly fruit. The Bible says that these are contrary to each other. We naturally produce worldly fruit but it must take some supernatural fertilizer to produce spiritual fruit right?

Living in the spirit is making the conscience effort to step back and allow God to lead your life. When we make decisions, one thing leads to another and that is how a life is formed. Your previous knowledge and previous choices have led you to the life that you experience today. But what if you had a fork in that road and chose to follow God down a different street? Then His knowledge would change the trajectory of your life. That is how living in the Spirit is. It takes you from living life on your own terms to readjusting your life for spiritual growth that produces good fruit.

Production for good fruit requires right growing conditions. You need to sun, water and time to ripen. Fruit is good when it is mature - not too soon before and definitely not after. It needs to be just right. However, who has a just right life? Fruit can only be developed in season, but spiritual fruit ripens in and out of season. You can only be fully ready at all times for all things by aligning your life with Almighty God.

All things that are good in our lives are a result of God's goodness to us. Jesus said "I am the vine, you are are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing". (John 15:5, KJV)

Just as we can do no good without Him, we need Him to be any good at all.
 Good fruit is the only kind of fruit that is worth eating. Everything else is either counterfiet or bad or both. Think about it. Even if you have some good fruit, if it is not used, it will begin to go bad. God gives us ample opportunity to be fruit-bearers on this earth. We can practice faith and kindness and goodness daily, but many times, we let it "go bad". We waste our love and peace by replacing it with counterfeit fruits. This does not please God and people know when you are not genuinely following Jesus and have a true connection to His vine.

So how about we get the right heart conditions for bearing good fruit and show what a real connection to Jesus looks like!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Becoming a Mother

Image
There was a time that I wondered if I would ever be a mother at all. After we got married in 2001, we waited for a few years and then we were pregnant with our first child in the spring of 2005. We were elated because we had finally saved enough to move out of our 1 bedroom apartment and become real homeowners!  Our happiness quickly took a turn for the worse just a few short months later when I began to have periods of cramping, then spotting. I had been working full-time throughout my pregnancy in rehab. It was heavy work, but I thought nothing of it. I was also very ignorant about heavy lifting while pregnant and monitoring my out-of-control mood swings. I took a lot of my frustration out on my husband. We had told our families and then we lost the baby to a miscarriage. Incompatible genes they told us. Incompatible?? Bind the Devil!! Now, I was no midwife or OB/GYN nurse, but I figured two healthy people could have a healthy baby together without complications. It's b
Read more

Building marriages with Date Night In Box!

Image
We were so excited to be gifted our first date box from Date Night In!! Ours was a date night in faith box too! It is so fabulous when people recognize the beauty of marriage and encouraging that union and that is exactly what this box did for us! *This blogpost contains information from our affiliate sponsor and prize eligibility* The box topic was FOUNDATION. It came with straws, candy lego blocks, jelly bellies, sticky popsicle sticks and instructions. We had three projects to complete together. We also had an amazing pre-prepared playlist to listen to as we worked together. Our favorite song was Winter Wonderland by Earth, Wind and Fire! Project #1 - Build a candle-holder from the popsicle sticks provided and place the candle in it. Project #2 - Build a foundation or structure to support the box that the date came in. Project #3 - Build a tower to support one jellybelly on top and then place it on top. This was no easy feat for us! First of all it was mad
Read more

Why celebrate?

Image
There are so many holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and special occassions. We are given a new reason to party almost every day. As Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for every purpose under heaven. Not taking time to love, appreciate  and remember your loved ones can cause you to be discontent, ungrateful and eben bitter. Just as we need to recall God's blessings in the past, we need to recognize the people in our lives who have helped, shared and encouraged us to be who we are today. Time is moving faster now more than ever. We are tempted to complain and work ourselves to death instead of taking the time to rest, reflect and admire the people, places and things that make our lives as comfortable as they are. So for every birthday, every Mother's or Father's Day, anniversary and graduation, i want my loved ones to know that my life has been made more fulfilling by their presence, encouragement and smile. Celebrate! Party! Encourage someone in your life on their special
Read more