Digging Deeper: Fruit of the Spirit
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)
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Growing up, my siblings, cousins and I were up early during the summer months helping our grandparents in the garden. On most days, the sun had barely risen, and this girl enjoyed her sleep! My grandfather was the one to wake us up, and I was the most rebellious. He often got sarcasm and anger instead of respect from me. The work was tiring and dirty and, frankly, none of us wanted to spend our summers this way. As you can imagine we had little tolerance for each other and there were lots of arguments and fighting among us. My grandmother would gently remind us that if we did not keep working, we would be in the fields later and the day would just get hotter. Not to mention there would be no fruit and vegetables to eat. Eventually we would all settle down and get to work.
These days were far from gentle, but they taught me great lessons. As an adult I realize that the hard workdays were preparing the soil to produce a harvest. Food would not just appear on the dinner table, if we did not work the fields and plant the seeds.
We can often think of the Fruit of the Spirit, which includes gentleness, in a comparable manner to gardening. We work, prepare the soil, plant seeds, and then harvest it when it is ripe. Then we store everything up and pull it out when we want or need it. The problem with this thinking is that it all depends on us.
Galatians 5 teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the one who produces the fruit within us. As we live by the Spirit and crucify the sinful desires of our flesh, the Holy Spirit is creating the fruit within us. The possibility to respond with gentleness is always readily available. It is the very character of God residing within us and empowering us to respond as He would. The choice is ours to yield our lives to it and reflect the nature of Christ to the world.
Today I pray that you know gentleness dwells within you and that it would be the first response others experience as they interact with you.
Bridget Turner serves as the Director of Women’s Groups at NorthStar Church. She and her husband, Steve, live in Powder Springs and have two young adult children, Hannah and Joshua. She enjoys watching football, traveling and reading.