Fruit Must GROW

I have been thinking about the Fruit of the Spirit today.

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

This little passage comes right after the author is talking about the "works of the Flesh", where he lists off a whole bunch of bad things that people really shouldn't do. I found the comparison very interesting. The apostle, Paul, the writer of this passage, is very careful in the words he uses. He talks about "WORKS of the flesh" vs. "FRUIT of the Spirit".

I think that many times we try to battle against "works of the Flesh" with "works of the Spirit", but Paul says that's not how it's done. These good things that we are all striving to posess, they are not things that we can WORK up, really. You can't go off and "work up" some more peace. You can't really bear down and concentrate and drum up some extra faithfulness. You can't work really hard and crank out some gentleness any more than you can crank out a banana. No amount of elbow grease will "work up" an apple.

This is the nature of FRUIT; it has to GROW.

Stop trying to "work up" your fruit. It will only frustrate you. Fruit takes time. Consistent time in the sun, periodical watering, and absorption of nutrients in the soil, that's how you grow fruit. Just walk, steadily, in your relationship with God through prayer, Bible reading, worship, and fellowship. Don't rush the process. The fruit will take care of itself if you just let it GROW.