Last year we planted an orange tree in our backyard. Over the past 12 months, it’s grown, but it hasn’t produced any fruit yet. But when it does have fruit, I expect it will have oranges since it’s an orange tree.
The same is true in our lives. If we are living for Jesus and allowing the gifts of the Holy Spirit to change us, we will show the change Jesus has brought to our lives by bearing the fruit of the spirit in us.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
Over the next few weeks, we’ll study verses on each of the fruit produced in our lives by the spirit.
What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
You’ll notice many of the fruit of the spirit relate to how we treat others.
Love means showing love to others as Jesus loves us.
Joy is a deep sense of happiness that comes from Jesus. We can have joy in our lives no matter what the circumstances are.
Peace is a sense of calm. We can have peace in our hearts and minds because we know that God is in control of all things.
Longsuffering means to bear other burdens and to help others during difficult times.
Kindness is treating others with the same respect we want for our selves. We can be kind with our words or actions to others.
Goodness is to have moral purity or virtue. In all we do, we can strive to be Christlike and act as Jesus would.
Faithfulness is being honorable and keeping our word to others and be true to God.
Gentleness is being soft-spoken, meek and humble.
Self-Control means to be in control of emotions and acting in control with our words and actions.
As your grow and develop the fruit of the spirit in your life, there is no limit to how much you can have or show of the fruit of the spirit.
