I’ve seen a theme lately: fruit!
There is the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
And there is abiding in Jesus in order to bear fruit in John 15:4-5: “Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
One of my Racers gave me new perspective month one in the Philippines: It’s not about trying to love more, trying to have more joy, trying to have more peace, trying to be more patient, etc.
We get to abide in the Lord and bear these fruit. It’s not about us trying harder to be good or do good things. We get to rest in the love of God, to live in his love, to dwell with him, to commune with him. That’s where the fruit of the Spirit is grown.
The understanding and application of this is enough to change your life. It’s definitely rocked my world and come up in many conversations since then.. it’s taken the pressure off of me and my performance and set my focus back to my relationship with my Father, my Savior, my Friend.
Now, yeste afternoon, God took me back to fruit.
I was writing to the Lord and he invited me to start reading in Genesis. I was happy with his response but decided to ask why.. He said “Because I want you to hear my heart from the beginning.”
Woah, was that so sweet to my ears! I started reading with intentionality, trying to better wrap my mind around creation.
Then, there it was, verse 11:
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.”
“Plants yielding seed”. Why specify the seed? Because, the seed is new life, the offspring, the descendants.
“Fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed”
Well, that’s a tad obvious…. but wait.. hmm…. the fruit is what contains the seed, the potential for new life.
I thought about the Spiritual fruit that we bear. Then about seeds and new life in the physical sense of bearing children (be fruitful and multiply). Then back to the Spiritual fruit.
We bear physical children, we bear Spiritual fruit. That fruit contains the seed… that seed grows and eventually bears fruit that contains seeds.
I want to bear good fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. I don’t want to bear fruit to appear to be a healthy tree, I want to actually be a healthy tree.. I want to bear good fruit because, God willing, I want to pass good Spiritual fruit along someday and I want those around me to be enriched by the Spiritual fruit that grows as I abide in the Vine. I want that fruit to grow a hunger for those around me to also bear fruit and for them to seek Jesus in new, life bearing ways.
Aaaand.. speaking of fruit, please enjoy this visual taste of Malaysia!
“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
John 15:2 ESV
