My Favorite Fruits
I’m a real fruit lover. Summer fruits are my favorite, but I also like fruits from other seasons. Karen and I used to live in the Northern California valley. There were fruit stands everywhere, and the fruit was fresh and incredibly tasty.
In the book of Galatians chapter five, the Apostle Paul uses fruit as a powerful metaphor to describe different aspects of Christ’s character. Here's what it says, Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” If you were counting, that's nine different fruits. That’s a lot to keep track of.
How about a different metaphor. What if all the fruits of the Spirit were like the stock market? Love is up 50 points today, patience is down 200 points, kindness is trending up a little, and self-control is spiraling downward.
Continuing with our stock market metaphor, what does the stock market look like for you right now Personally speaking, I do my best to be aware of how the market is doing in my life. When I was younger, self-control and patience were competing for the basement. The struggle was real, as they say. As the years rolled on, my stock progressively went up in those areas, but because I had spent so much time focusing on those two fruits, I neglected some of the other fruits like gentleness and faithfulness. Just about the time I think I’m getting a handle on a particular fruit of the Spirit, I notice my stock is dropping in another fruit.
Since becoming a Christian, my stock is up in all nine categories of fruit. But since I was starting from ground zero in some areas, that doesn’t mean I’ve arrived—far from it. The difference is that now it’s on my radar when not too many years ago it wasn’t. If my stock falls in goodness or joy, I don’t condemn myself. In fact, I rejoice in the fact that now I am aware of my shortcomings so that I can surrender that area of my life to God.
Just a warning about asking God to help you grow. Let’s say you need help in the fruit of love. Be prepared for some pruning. It all sounds good until you realize that pruning kind of hurts a little. Example, “God, I need to get better at loving people. Please help me to more fully develop this fruit in my life.” The next thing you know, God sends some of the most irritating people imaginable into your life and says, “Here ya go, now love them.”
Or here’s another scenario. “God, please help me to have more patience?” A week later you get a notice in the mail stating that your application for that job you’ve been pursuing has been delayed indefinitely—please reapply.
I’m not saying this to discourage you but rather to prepare you for what real growth looks like in the fruit market. If you are oblivious to the fruit of the Spirit, it’s time to check the stock market and see where things stand. Since I’m working on the fruit of gentleness, let me say very gently, it’s a bull market. Time to invest!
Stay close to Jesus,
Steve