In the Word eVotion                         July 27, 2010

The Fruit of the Spirit Is...
By Pastor Jason Van Divier

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

I just ate a nectarine. It was sweet, juicy, smooth, refreshing and messy. If I wanted to be really lame, I could probably come up with a lot more adjectives. The point is, I can describe one singular fruit in many ways. The same is true of the fruit of the Spirit. It is one singular fruit with many qualities. Interestingly, instead of those qualities being adjectives, they are all nouns. Nectarines are not typically described in terms of kindness, but the fruit of the Spirit is manifested in our lives through very tangible virtues.

I don’t think we can meditate on or pray for the fruit of the Spirit enough. Recently, I was considering all the things I was praying about for myself – the areas I want to grow in. I quickly discovered that every single one of those things fell into one of the categories of the fruit of the Spirit. Instead of praying for all these different things, I decided to simplify my prayers and just focus on the qualities found here. It is not hard to imagine what our relationships with the Lord and others would be like if we just realized more of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Think about the areas you need to grow in. Are they found somewhere in these verses? Could you benefit from spending more time here?