The Fruit Of The Spirit's Not A Coconut
Monday August 3, 2020
Hey church family... How familiar are you with “The Fruit Of The Spirit?” The “Fruit of the Spirit” is something we see embroidered on tea towels or written in fancy calligraphy on posters. There’s even a children’s song that goes, “The fruit of the spirit is not a coconut (or an apple, or an orange)." Just in case you’re not familiar with them, the F.O.S. are found in Galatians chapter 5 and there we’re told that, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” One of the things we need to remember as we reflect on that list, is that this list is not a menu from which we get to pick and choose but rather a description of the things that ought to characterize our lives as we walk with Jesus. So I want to challenge you to look at that list and ask yourself, to what degree others are seeing those things as they look at you. Are words like “Love” and “Joy” and “Peace” and “Patience” the things that others see when they see you?
I was thinking about the story that’s recorded in Acts 4:13 where we’re told about a time that two of Jesus followers, Peter and John were speaking before some people who were not followers of Jesus. We’re told that, “As they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” That challenged me to ask myself, “When I come into contact with others who don’t know Jesus, what it there about me, that would cause them to recognize that I’ve been with Jesus?’ Hopefully there would be many things, and hopefully among them would be things like... “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” God’s desire for my life and for yours is that the longer we walk with him, the more those things would be growing and showing in us. Let’s be praying for that to be true of you and me this week.
