Sweet Fragrances

Sweet Fragrances

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

The sweet whiff of an apple orchard is enough to take some of us back to our childhood summer days. Numerous Amish families have apple orchards. Hillcrest Orchard, in Sugarcreek, Ohio, is one. They have fifty acres of apple and peach trees, and you’ll also find other fresh produce, including squash and pumpkins as well as honey, maple syrup, jams, and jellies.

Ohio produces around forty varieties of apples. The apples grow during the summer and are ripe and ready to pick at different times, from the end of August to the end of September. Some apples are sweet and others are tart. Some are best for baking, and all are delicious right from the tree.

It would be foolish to believe that an apple could grow out of the ground without being part of a tree. But we often expect to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, etc., in our own effort, and then have little success. Just as an apple tree produces apples, it’s the Holy Spirit who produces spiritual fruit in our lives. And just as there are many different varieties of apples, the fruit we produce is different—unique to each of us.

Amish apple orchards fill summer nights with a sweet fragrance, and the fruit that is produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives does the same. Second Corinthians 2:14-15 says, “Thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.”

Do you have a desire to seek God and ask for more of His Spirit? As you do, the fruit that is produced will be fragrant and beautiful to those around you. Sometimes we try to act better and then don’t get far with our efforts. But God-in-us will produce more and better fruit than we have ever dreamed.

Dear heavenly Father, fill me so that the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control grow in my life!