Planting the Seed
Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
I love scrolling through Pinterest and finding inspirational quotes and other prompts and thought-provoking posts especially regarding the bible and my faith. I have a whole board (if you use Pinterest you’ll know what I mean) called ‘Bible Verses & Inspo’ full of such things. The other day I came across a post with a picture of a ‘Spiritual Check-up’ listing the Fruit of the Spirit and I couldn’t answer 'yes' any of the questions underneath each one. I felt ashamed but God doesn’t want me to sit in my misery, He would rather me gain the knowledge and then act on it because if we know what we need to do and do not do it, then that is a sin (James 4:17)
To be able to cultivate good fruit we must abide in Christ (John 15:5) As Jesus is the true vine (John 15:1) and we are the branches (John 15:5). If we do not abide in Christ we cannot bear good fruit and thus we will wither (John 15:6): essentially we will be dead and of no use to ourselves or anybody else.
In my end of year blog post I spoke about the introspection I had been doing and I want to carry on doing that so that I can grow and Christ and so that I can be a new person and people can see Christ through me. Jesus said, “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20), meaning that when people see our character traits and they get to know us they can say we are children of God just as they were able to do with those that believed in Him post Christ’s resurrection.
So let us go through some verses relating to each segment of the fruit of the Spirit so that we can begin this journey, planting our seeds.
LOVE
Mark 12:30-31
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Love sums up all the 10 commandments. The first 4 being our love for God. The last 6 being our love towards others.
But what does real love look like? 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 explains.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Personally for me, I need to love without expecting to receive. I often get upset that my efforts are not reciprocated but then is it true love if I’m expecting in return? The answer is no.
JOY
Psalms 16:11
11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Essentially Joy is only found in the Lord. Not happiness which is situational but REAL EVERASTING JOY. For me this means I must abide with God and not allow my situations to lead me to forget the joy that God bestows.
PEACE
Isaiah 26:3
3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
For me this means constantly having God’s words in my heart and mind. To have His words there, I must know His words. His promises which means reading them more and remembering them so in times of distress I can recall them.
LONGSUFFERING
James 1:3-4
I love how the EASY English Bible version puts this verse-
3 God wants to see if you really trust him. Your faith in God will become stronger as a result of these troubles.
4 So you should continue to trust God all the way to the end. Then you will grow as a believer. You will become completely how you should be. You will not need anything more.
Regarding me and my life, I need to stop complaining. I need to be like Job and say, “though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15) and give thanks for my trials because my trials will shape my character. My trials will help to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. My trials will be a testimony to bring others to Christ.
GENTLENESS
2 Timothy 2:24
24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men..
This means being gentle through actions, words. The ways in which we interact with people and respond to people are important. I definitely need to think before I act.
GOODNESS
Psalm 25:8
8 Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
The vast majority of the verses I found when I was researching goodness in the bible were describing the character of the Lord. This verse in Psalm literally says because God is good, He can teach us how to be good but what must we do? ABIDE IN HIM.
FAITH
Matthew 17:20
20 … for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Everything we do is based on our faith in God. It is our faith that determines what we do and how we treat others. It is our faith that eradicates uncertainty and doubt.
MEEKNESS
I will not lie. I had to research what this meant because I’ve heard the word all my life and never really grasped the meaning. I’ve come to understand that meekness equates to humility. Having a modest and humble attitude.
Matthew 18:4
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I need to get over myself in so many situations. Pride is a nasty character trait. It can cause damage to others but most certainly you will hurt yourself. So often I tell myself relax because I am no above anything nor anyone. I don’t even deserve life, much more anything else. If you don’t humble yourself, you will be humbled (Matthew 23:12)
TEMPERANCE
Temperance is restraint or moderation. Knowing what to avoid. Knowing how much of something is good and how far is bad. This means having self- control, self-discipline. This is certainly something I struggle with and it just makes life harder for me.
This year we actually need to defeat procrastination, limit our usage of social media, watch what we eat and drink. Where we go and what we do.
Our body is a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19) and we must protect it and keep it well. Remembering that there is a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1) and using discernment in every aspect of life.
So if you made it to the end of this post, I just want to encourage you to keep going. When we pray for things especially when it comes to character we must understand ONE THING:
God will not just GIVE it to us, we must be challenged in order for our characters to be moulded into what they are supposed to be.
That is the only way our new character will be sustained. So when these tests do arise, don’t give up the fight because on the other side of victory is a sweet and juicy fruit.