Definitely Desirable Fruit

People and animals enjoy the fruit trees in our yard. In the springtime, I love to photograph the beautiful blooms on the pear trees. Later on, even before any pears ripen, the deer who forage for food in our yard eat the green ones attached to low-growing limbs. However, the deer have to wait for the persimmons to ripen and fall to the ground from limbs high overhead. Therefore, they visit the tree many times a day, hoping to find the delicious fruit.

As I think about physical fruit, I am reminded that the Bible talks about a different kind of "fruit" that is produced by the Holy Spirit who indwells each believer. Most translations use wording similar to this when listing that fruit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

However, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language describes the fruit this way:

But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way fruit appears in an orchard--things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

Although descriptions of the fruit vary, it's definitely desirable since such fruit honors God and blesses those who partake of it. Oh, may the Holy Spirit produce a bumper crop of fruit in your life and mine!

Fruit In Its Season

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

   Nor stands in the path of sinners,

   Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

   And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

   Planted by the rivers of water,

   That brings forth its fruit in its season,

   Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

--Psalm 1:1-3, NKJV

Apples on a tree at Honeywood Farms in Barnesville, GA

Like Produces Like

We’ve been enjoying the produce my husband brings in from his small garden. He can count on his tomato plants to produce tomatoes, never peppers. His cucumber vines produce cucumbers, never tomatoes or herbs or green beans. Whatever kind of plant he plants, it bears exactly what it’s supposed to. No surprises. Ever. 

This principle applies to all living things. Lions give birth to lion cubs, not llamas. 

The Bible says that like produces like--not only in the natural world but also in the spiritual world. For example, the Spirit of God who indwells believers produces this kind of spiritual fruit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). People who do not have the Spirit manifest very different attitudes and actions. 

Does the Spirit of God live in you? To find out, take a look at your “fruit.”

The Gift of "Daily Bread"

Elisabeth Elliot begins her book,  God’s Guidance: A Slow and Certain Light, with a phrase-by-phrase discussion of the words included in what is called The Lord’s Prayer or The Model Prayer, which is found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil,

For thine is the kingdom,

And the power, and the glory forever.

Amen.

In the section dealing with Give us this day our daily bread, Elisabeth points out that God not only created us to need what He gives, but He also wants us to recognize our need for His provisions by asking for them.  She says “bread” includes not only food to sustain our bodies but also, in a broader sense, all the things we need Him to supply, guidance being one of them.

Throughout the chapter dealing with the Lord’s Prayer, which He gave to His disciples as a model for them (and us!) to use, Elisabeth uses word pictures to clarify the principles in the prayer and help us to remember them. For example, in the Give us this day our daily bread section, she says she likes to picture, at the beginning of each new day,  the Lord presenting her with a platter containing all the things He knows is best for her for that day.

Since He always answers our  prayer for “daily bread,” we should gladly and gratefully receive whatever He provides. (See p. 25.)