Fresh Fruit: The Fruit Of The Spirit

Fresh Fruit: The Fruit of the Spirit

Bible Blast: Read Romans 8:9-11

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

When you hear people mention the “fruit of the Spirit,” they’re talking about these nine things: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Picture the fruit of the Spirit as a beautiful, juicy cluster of grapes. Love, joy, peace, and the others are individual grapes in that cluster. Let’s consider why God decided to call them fruit.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “You reap what you sow”? Did you know that’s from the Bible? In Galatians 6:7-9, God says that whatever you plant, you’ll grow. If you plant a watermelon seed, you will get watermelons, not strawberries. When we “plant” the Holy Spirit in our lives, we “grow” love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Planting the Holy Spirit means that we let him guide us. Look at Galatians 5:16-17. “Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” So if we just went around doing whatever we felt like doing, we would not have the Spirit’s fruit hanging from our vines. We would have things like hatred, worry, stress, selfishness, and laziness growing in our lives. Fruits like those are rotten from the moment they’re planted.

As we look at the fruit of the Spirit for the next nine days, ask yourself, “Is this something that grows in my life?” If the answer is no, then go searching for that fruit with all you’ve got.

Girl Gab: Make a list of your favorite fruits, and get them at the grocery store the next time you’re out. Make a point to eat more fruit during these next nine Fruit of the Spirit devo days. You could even try a funky fruit you’ve never eaten before, like star fruit. When you slice it, it makes little star shapes. So cool!