Growing fruit

My pastor just started a study on the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) on Wednesday nights. As part of our study last night, we had table discussions covering several questions he posed. In our discussion, we wrestled with the questions of which fruit of the Spirit do each of us find the hardest to "cultivate," and how can we better grow that fruit in our lives.

My thoughts went out of the book of Galatians to the gospel of John. While seeing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is a sign of growth as a Christian, we need to know where the fruit comes from. It obviously can't come from ourselves; Paul spends the verses just prior to verses 22-23 examining the fruit of our human nature. Our natural inclination is to grow fruit that is self-serving and self-pleasing, so what the Spirit does to grow His fruit on our lives is not the result of our own strength or effort.

I think that this passage ties into John 15. That is where Jesus speaks of Himself as the vine, and His followers as the branches. We cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit unless we are connected to Jesus and remaining in Him. All of the power needed to see these fruits blossom and grow comes from Him, through the Holy Spirit.

So how do we see the fruit of the Spirit grow in our lives? Remain in Christ. Those are simple words, but often hard to put into practice. To spend the time studying and meditating on the Word and in prayer is often hard for us. Yet when we drift away from our time with the Lord, we often find ourselves missing the love, joy, peace, and other "fruit" we want for our lives. It really comes down to a matter of making our time with Jesus our priority each day.

This is why the world fails to find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. You can read every self-help book ever written, go to a parade of therapists, make all the resolutions you can, or even try pharmaceutical means, but none of them have the power to bring that fruit into your life. Only Jesus can give us these, and only by remaining in Him will we find them growing in our lives.

Want to see more of the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Spend time with Jesus, and you'll see it start to grow.