Growing up, I had fruit trees in my backyard. I loved climbing the apple trees. As a kid you could tell when a tree was healthy by the fruit it was producing. But what's more the fruit it produced kept the tree alive. The fruit that's produced falls to the ground and it decomposes, and it keeps the ground around the tree nourished. So you could say that fruit is both a sign of life and serves the practical purpose of nourishment. Paul in his letter to the Galatians writes about fruit. First, he warns against the `` desires of the flesh .'' These are the behaviors and desires the fruit of our lives that distance us from God. In contrast, Paul also described the `` desires of the spirit '', the fruit, which offers witness to God's life-changing work in our hearts. Just like fruit grows naturally when a tree or vine is watered and gets enough sunshine, when we spend time with God in scripture and prayer, good things come out of our hearts.
Fruits like love and joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But just like the apple trees in my yard, these fruits are more than just signs of health. They also nourish us spiritual fruit keeps us going and then produces more fruit in us. So when the Holy Spirit produces patience in our hearts, that practice of patience makes it easier for us to be patient the next time a loved one challenges us the fruits of the spirit, are signs of health. But they are also what God uses to sustain us. Paul's encouragement to the galatians to bear good fruit can encourage us too. And just as the Holy Spirit developed fruit in the early church, he can develop good fruit in us fruit that can sustain us as we aim to follow God.
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