Fruit

This morning i was reading the passage in Scripture that we will be looking at this coming Tues. night at Bible study. It is John 15:1-17, focusing on bearing fruit. Whenever i read "fruit" in the NT i always want to know specifically what that means. I have lots of ideas. I guess i'm always looking for confirmation that my ideas are the same as Jesus' ideas of fruit.

The easy one is in Gal. 5:22. There Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit. But i think there has to be more. So is it just all the good stuff that we can do? The nice things that we do, say? Or is it more then that.

So i went to a Bible study site that i use every once in a while. May not be the best site for this, but it works pretty well for me. I searched "What is fruit?" They gave me several articles by a bunch of different folks. Read a couple of those. Realized that one answer for what fruit is comes in the form of my learning more, and sharing more. I think a lot can come from discovery and then telling others what you've found.

Here's the deal then. I'm going to start telling you what i've found. OK, i right off what to let you know i realize i am no, i mean NO Bible scholar. Let's just make that clear up front. But i am a believer in the Holy Spirit leading. He sees our desire to grow and He will help with that. I have the desire, now i just have to do something with it.

Today's lesson on fruit: it needs to be more evident in my life in order for me to know Jesus more, and others to see Jesus more. When you read the list of the fruit of the Spirit (notice it is not plural) it goes like this: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self control. Whew. Tall order. But God does not ask anything of us He doesn't already know we can do. So, in order for me to grow i need that fruit that i already have within me to be more visible. And i need to rely on the Spirit for that. I can do nothing on my own. He instructs, i listen and do. That's how it's suppose to go anyway. I'm working on that.

My prayer is that, rather then me keeping a running total in my head of these traits every time i interact with someone and making sure i'm covering all the bases, i allow the Spirit to let me know how to go with the flow. Ooo, i like that. Because truth be known, i want folks to see Jesus more, me less. And i need help with that. Holy Spirit help. Glad it's there!

And now, just to let you all be a part of this, you have my permission to ask me how it's going. Any time, any where. Then i'll know too if anyone reads this. So, thanks ahead of time!