Feed the Fruit

Feed the Fruit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:22-26‬

Ever get frustrated, angry or impatient? Or all three?

I do. Sometimes more easily than other times. 

It’s hard not to feed our basic desires and lusts. I’m in my fifties now and have had a life of developing bad habits prior to my salvation. I lived a life of reinforcing bad behaviors. It’s hard for me to change who I was and replace it with who Jesus Christ knows I can be. It’s the facts. 

My bad behavior developed a default response of self-reliance, me fixing the problems or feeding the desires. I had no dependency on Jesus.  I definitely had no relationship with God. 

That is, until I realized that I needed Him. My bad behavior and my wants and desires were ruining my life and those around me. Some saw it, others had no idea how it would effect them - but it would. 

We can’t live that life and be in a successful and flourishing relationship with God. It isn’t possible. 

We have to die to ourselves and we have to grow in a relationship with God. We have to starve our desires and feed the fruits of the Holy Spirit. 

As believers, the more we desire the Holy Spirit to come alive in us, the more we replace what our desires, defaults and dysfunctions are with the qualities and character traits of Christ.  

The Holy Spirit is in us once we turn our lives to Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is in us and waiting to be nurtured, fed and grown. We cannot continue to live in our own desires and lusts and expect the fruit to grow. 

The only way you will be saved from your own destruction is by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. 

It isn’t an immediate process. It’s been almost three years since turning my life to Christ and I still struggle daily. But my struggles aren’t nearly what they used to be.

I depend on God. I rely on the Holy Spirit. I trust in the Lord. 

You have to replace the bad things in your life with the good things of God if you want a change for the better. 

Feed the fruit not your desire. 

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:1-6‬