“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-24 NIV)
There have probably been times in your life where you have felt the need to be more loving or joyful, or patient. Most likely you were inclined to try harder to incorporate the trait into your life, because that is what we do to improve something—we work harder.
When it comes to the fruit of the Spirit, we wish that we had them in more abundance in our lives, and our instinct is to work on that. Yet, Paul says there is no law involved in the production of this fruit. In other words, the law is an obligation, something to fulfill, but the fruit of the Spirit is naturally produced. We don’t form it in our lives by trying harder.
If you walk in an orchard grove, you won’t hear the sounds of grunting as the trees work hard to produce their fruit. Rather, it is a natural process because fruit trees just naturally produce fruit. There is no trying. In the same way, the Holy Spirit naturally produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It doesn’t take more exertion on our part, but rather to cease impeding the Spirit and submit to His work in our lives.
If you desire to have more of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, you don’t have to try harder to get it. If you are a follower of Jesus, the Spirit lives in you (Romans 8:9), and He will naturally growHis fruit if you don’t impede Him. Today let Him do in your life what He naturally does—produce His fruit.
© Jim Musser 2018
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