THINK TOGETHER.
What is your favorite fruit?
READ TOGETHER.
Galatians 5:22-23. 22But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
How do we know that a tree is an apple tree? That’s right, because we see apples growing on it. The same is true of an orange tree, or a pear tree. Jesus said the same thing about people. He said, “By their fruit you will know them.” This means that we can tell if a person has faith in Jesus by what comes out of them, just like we can tell what kind of tree it is by what fruit comes out of it.
Every person who has trusted in Jesus has the Holy Spirit living inside of them. This makes every Christian a “spiritual fruit tree.” This is why the Apostle Paul says in today’s verses that the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:
Love: God’s love that put’s others ahead of yourself.
Joy: feeling happy about knowing God.
Peace: confidence that God is in control.
Patience: staying calm when things go wrong.
Kindness: being nice to others.
Goodness: doing what you’re supposed to.
Faithfulness: being loyal to your friends.
Gentleness: putting other’s first.
Self-control: doing the right thing, even when it’s hard.
Wow! That’s quite a list. You might even be thinking, “How am I supposed to do all those things? Be kind. And be good. And always be joyful?” But here’s the thing about fruit trees, they don’t think about how they are going to produce their fruit. It just happens because that is what they are. A fruit tree stands in the field, it receives sunlight, air, and rain from God. It gets its food from God’s earth. And then…fruit comes out. If a fruit tree could think about anything it would simply be thinking, “Gee I love the sun, the air, the rain, and the soil. Thank you God for giving me these things.”
Being a Christian is similar. We don’t have to think about how to have all the spiritual fruit that the Bible lists here. We simply think about how much God loves us and gives us everything we need through Jesus. God gives us love, joy, and peace. God is patient, kind, good, faithful, and gentle with us. When we trust that God does all this for us through the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit’s fruit will come out of our lives.
Because of the Holy Spirit we get everything we need from God.
With the Holy Spirit his fruit of love, joy, and peace will come out of our lives.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Eat some fruit together. Talk about how good fruit comes from good trees; God makes us his good trees.
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, I know I have everything I need from your Spirit. Please let it become good fruit in me. Amen.
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