How To Evaluate Fruit Production - 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)

“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” (Matthew 7:15-20, NLT)

I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s when a popular decorative hack was to put out bowls with colorful plastic fruit as a centerpiece on the dining table or kitchen counter. Looking back, I have no clue why fake fruit was seen as classier than the real thing – but for a season, it took over. Paper-mache bananas. Realistically painted wooden apples. The zany hues of the late sixties to match the wild wallpaper of the eras. Fake fruit can be pretty as an accent, but it does little to actually offer the real sustenance of a lasting legacy.

How do we know if it’s real or plastic fruit growing in our lives? Let me suggest two elements that can help us measure spiritual fruit production.

First: quality. Are you growing genuine fruit that authentically represents God? Fake fruit offers an empty promise. It looks like real fruit. Often, it even feels like real fruit – or better! But under the pressure of adversity, it dissolves. Fake fruit offers a feast for the eye while starving the stomach.

Oh, but it’s so popular! Indeed. In place of love, we choose lust. Joy is replaced by temporary happiness. Peace trades places with contentment. Patience never buds and instead, a fake, smiley, niceness takes over and cuts off difficult relationships. Kindness mutates into manipulation. Goodness is good-enough-ness. Faithfulness is a suck-it-up-steadiness of our own making. Self-control is ritualistic compulsivity.

Spiritual fruit doesn’t have to be dressed up to be better. It’s honest. It can say, “Oh, I’d like to help but I’m so exhausted!” or “Honey, is there any way I could do it this afternoon rather than this morning because then I’ll be finished with my project?” Spiritual fruit is not always available, or happy, or in a good mood, or pretty. But it does rise up from the roots of dependency on God and tries, honestly, purely and openly.

Next? Quantity. The fruit of the Spirit is intended to present as a cluster. They grow in bunches. Together. If you find a picked-apart cluster, a vine adorned with a few measly fruit, you may have settled for selective fruit growing. Love. Gentleness. Self-Control. Yep, those are there. But very little joy. Patience is stunted. Kindness, goodness and faithfulness – check. But in the spot where peace should be displayed, zip.

God intended His fruit to grow in clusters of characteristics – all nine at once. And maybe even more. When He’s growing an example of what He looks like, He strives to illustrate all the aspects of His nature, not just the ones that tend to spring naturally from certain types of personalities.

A quantity check reveals where fruit is missing. When we see the absence of fruit, we can ask God to make it present by His doing. It may sound simple – it really is. When we recognize that we don’t have a certain fruit in our lives, our only job is to say so to God and ask for help. Pause. Pray. Remember it’s not all up to you. Cooperate with the Gardener. It’s His job to bring the growth.

Beware of the fake fruit that offers the benefit of the real thing but delivers nothing. To grow a life that matters, check out the quality and quantity of your life’s produce section.

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, Thanks for helping me to see where I struggle with fruit production, both by settling for fake fruit and by ignoring the need for several varieties altogether. I recognize the absence of some in my life and I acknowledge that I can’t produce these fruits by myself. They are a result of Your work in me. I invite You to grow me! 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?