Summertime Fruits of the Spirit

It is officially July and Summer is in full swing! What better time to talk about yummy fruit? Specifically, the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit have been on my heart a lot lately and it is so fitting for summer. I recently did a quick fruit of the spirit study through Risen Motherhood, and it gave me an opportunity to look at each of these Christ-like characteristics and what scripture says about them. My son also learned the cutest little song towards the end of the school year and that is what propelled me to look more at this. I can gladly say that now because of that song I can list them all in order and tell you where they are in the bible but before this preschool song, I could not have—woops. Childlike faith, am I right?

Anyways, as I looked more into this part of the bible specifically and sang this silly song with my kids, I asked them. “How would you describe the fruits of the spirit? What does that mean?” My daughter said, “They are things that make us more like God.” Great answer. For my own need and desire, I went on to explain that the fruits of the spirit are characteristics that God asks for us to display and how we naturally display them when we spend time with God, because we WANT to be more like Him.

In an article on christianitytoday.com by Penny Noyes it is written, “Jesus didn’t use the phrase fruit of the Spirit, but he often mentioned fruit in his teaching. In John 15:5, Jesus said, ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’ Fruit is evidence of being connected to Christ, just as branches of a tree or a grapevine have to be connected to the trunk in order to bear grapes or apples.”

I love that, fruit is the evidence of being CONNECTED to Christ. We must be connected to Him to bear any fruit at all.  Not to mention the process of growing fruit involves pruning and cutting back and I know we have all been through those seasons. But if we cooperate with God in that and stay CONNECTED to Him, fruit eventually grows and even in abundance!

What specific fruits is God growing or working in your right now? Which fruits do you struggle with that you want God to prune in you? What fruits do you feel are strong in you right now? Memorize this verse below if it is not already memorized and ask God to highlight specific fruits in you.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.

For me, JOY is a tough one. Finding JOY in everything no matter the circumstance even when things don’t feel GOOD, has always been a struggle for me. But I WANT to have the fruit of the spirit. But all in all, these traits are all hard for our flesh and we do not just wake up being this way. We must work hard at staying connected to Christ because in our humanness, we won’t bear this fruit. I don’t know about you, but I am SO thankful that God can take my icky human characteristics and prune them into sweet, juicy fruits of the spirit! He is always transforming us if we cling to Him and stay aware.

Join me in the memorization of this verse. It’s a fun one and I bet once you memorize it you won’t forget it! Now, speaking of fruit, I am going to cut up some watermelon because it sounds so good after writing this 😉 Have an amazing July!

Nikki Quaid