What Is The Purpose Of Spiritual Fruit? - Fruitful Living: How to Grow a Life That Matters

“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)

“Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.” (Romans 13:14, NLT)

My friend, Bonnie, is a generation above me. More than anyone I can think of, the fruit of Bonnie’s life markets the character of God. Dressed daily in the fruit of the Spirit, Bonnie’s passion for God is contagious. As a result, she has made me want more and more of God because of the fruit I see in her life.

From the moment Bonnie greets me, whether in person or on the phone, with “Elisa!” I feel loved by God Himself. When she asks about the details of my life, I experience an acceptance that demonstrates the deepest kind of patience. Throughout their lives, Bonnie sent each of my now-grown children birthday cards carrying five-dollar bills – a kindness my kids came to count on. And faithful, oh my … Bonnie has been faithful to offer care and prayer through the seasons of my marriage, my mothering, and my life. Bonnie attracts me to the hope I can have in God through the fruitful legacy of His character in her life.

One year in particular, I struggled deeply with my relationship with my mother. I grew up in a “broken” home. My parents divorced when I was five, and my mother – bless her heart – battled alcoholism all the years of her adult life. While she knew God as a young child, she avoided Him in her adult days. In my thirties, my personal work included healing from the confusion of my childhood and specifically, a very codependent relationship with my mother. I had been more of a mother to her than she had been to me.

When she discovered that she had cancer, instead of feeling the conclusion of our mother/daughter journey, what I experienced was more like panic that I’d be somehow responsible for her eternity. I know, this was a bit irrational. But I found myself hopeless, loveless and prayerless when it came to my mother and her hereafter.

I turned to Bonnie. I asked Bonnie to pray for my mother because I’d worn the topic out before God. She did. Daily. Faithfully. From time to time, she’d check in and ask me for topics, words, or concerns. What did I want her to pray for my mother? I told her to please pray that my mother would see her need for God and that she would desire heaven. I waited. Bonnie prayed.

The week my mother died, she called to tell me that she’d remembered two poems, both about Jesus – and heaven. At last. My mother had come to see her need for God and had begun to desire heaven.

Bonnie’s prayers kept God before me, guiding me to Him and to the fruit He longs to grow in my own life. God is the master marketer. He “packages” Himself in a wrapper of fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

Fruit in one life “markets” the hope of Jesus to another life. Fruit sells God to a world hungry for truth, for hope and for life. At first that might seem like a sneaky or even manipulative thing. It’s not. Physical fruit is something we know. It beckons us to bite. Spiritual fruit arouses our interest with its lure of impact. We’re familiar with these amazing words. God is so much bigger but He meets us in the language, words, and qualities of our longing for meaning so that we might want Him and what He wants.

Fruit is the external result of an internal relationship. When God grows His fruit in our personalities, He creates a life that matters in the life we live.

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, I am changed by the understanding that the purpose of Your fruit is to draw others to the hope and help they can have in You. I also realize that I’m sometimes tempted to “add on” to Your clear qualities and probably end up muddying Your image rather than modeling it. Help me to relax in who You really are and let You grow these fruits of Your character purely and simply in my days without embellishment, trusting You with the results. In Your name, Amen.

Adapted From: Fruitful Living: Growing a Life That Matters by Elisa Morgan. Our Daily Bread Publishing https://www.amazon.com/Fruitful-Living-Growing-Life-Matters-ebook/dp/B0F55VLYJ4/ref=sr_1_1?