I started reading some
sermons regarding the fruit of the spirit and came upon this one that explained
what fruit is. The link to the full sermon is below:
Because, you see, these
qualities are fruit. And you can’t make fruit, can you – well, there is
doubtless an Apple factory somewhere, but that’s something different. You can’t
go and watch a banana being made, or the peel being put on an orange. Fruit grows.
It’s the farmers and the growers who produce fruit, not factories or mills. The
farmer, or the market gardener, does a great deal to protect the fruit trees,
and see that they aren’t eaten by pests, or get too dry, and that the trees
have been pollinated so that the fruit can grow, but basically they have to be
patient, and wait for the fruit to grow and ripen.
And so do we. We can’t manufacture love, or joy, or gentleness, or the other qualities Paul mentions. But we can help them grow.
How? Well, obviously first of all by really being God’s person, not just in Church on Sundays, but allowing what we do on Sundays to affect the rest of our week. Ideally we should try to take time to be with God, even if only for a few minutes, every day. John Wesley reminds us of the “means of grace” of prayer, both private and corporate, the Holy Scriptures and Holy Communion. He points out, in his famous sermon on “The means of grace” that these things aren’t powerful in and of themselves, but only insofar as they bring us towards God. We can pray until we’re blue in the face, Wesley says – well, words to that effect, anyway – but it’s not our prayer that changes things, it’s God working in and through our prayers. And, of course, Wesley reminds us, it’s not praying or whatever that makes us a Christian – it is God’s grace alone that can do that.
And so do we. We can’t manufacture love, or joy, or gentleness, or the other qualities Paul mentions. But we can help them grow.
How? Well, obviously first of all by really being God’s person, not just in Church on Sundays, but allowing what we do on Sundays to affect the rest of our week. Ideally we should try to take time to be with God, even if only for a few minutes, every day. John Wesley reminds us of the “means of grace” of prayer, both private and corporate, the Holy Scriptures and Holy Communion. He points out, in his famous sermon on “The means of grace” that these things aren’t powerful in and of themselves, but only insofar as they bring us towards God. We can pray until we’re blue in the face, Wesley says – well, words to that effect, anyway – but it’s not our prayer that changes things, it’s God working in and through our prayers. And, of course, Wesley reminds us, it’s not praying or whatever that makes us a Christian – it is God’s grace alone that can do that.
Psalm 1: 1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the
counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates
day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its
fruit in season and whose lead does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
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