A good (healthy) tree cannot bear bad (worthless) fruit, nor can a bad (diseased) tree bear excellent fruit [worthy of admiration].
During my first few years of ministry, I spent a lot of my prayer time asking God for powerful and dynamic gifts that would help me be an effective minister. I focused on the gifts I needed, but I didn’t give much thought to the fruit of the Spirit. I must admit I was more concerned about power than godly character.
Then one day the Lord impressed upon me, “Joyce, if you would have put even half as much energy and time into praying about and trying to develop the fruit of the Spirit as you have the gifts, you’d already have both.”
As Christians, many of us pray that God will give us great spiritual power, but our first priority really should be developing the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The closer we get to God, the more fruit we will naturally produce.
We are known by our fruit, not by our gifts. When people see the fruit of God’s Spirit in your life, they can see what God is doing in your heart. I encourage you today to ask God to cultivate the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life on a daily basis. If you’ll focus on the fruit, the power will follow.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, help me to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in my life on a regular basis, amen.
