Good people – good fruit

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone was always kind, generous, unselfish, fair and reasonable?

Now that would be something wouldn’t it?

The Church I attend is currently teaching on what is called in the Bible the “Fruits of the Spirit” and I’m finding the messages very thought-provoking for a number of reasons. The first of course, being that I claim to be a Christian and therefore, God and those around me expect me to conduct myself in a certain way. God wants me to live up to His expectations and the people around me, expect me to live up to what they believe a Christian should be like. It’s very challenging given that people who have little interest in Christian things tend to have a myriad of different notions on how or what Christians should be like.

My purpose here is not to preach to anyone but rather to encourage our readers to think about these Fruits of the Spirit, what they imply and if you agree, to apply some of them more openly in our own lives. They are after all, just good characteristics and ones we’ll all benefit from if more people applied them. So, what are the “Fruits of the Spirit”?

They are described in the Bible as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking most people probably display these characteristics already so what’s the big deal?

For me, the big deal is that I consider myself basically a very decent human being and I already display many of these characteristics. That’s true, to a point, but if I’m honest, I’d have to say that every day something will bring out my impatient side, something will prevent me from showing joy, I will be less loving to someone than I could have been, my selfish side will come out when I put my interests ahead of someone else’s, someone who may really need my help. I’m sure you get my drift.

My judgement is that greed and selfishness are impacting on society more than at any time in history and I’m convinced that if we each took the  time to think about it, we’ll see the results of these are impacting on life as we know it in all manner of ways and situations, and we’d hopefully want to stop or at least slow this trend.

It can happen, if individually we’re prepared to play our part.

Friends, let me encourage each of you reading this, to think about each of the Fruits of the Spirit, consider a recent situation in your life where each may have come into play, and what the outcome was, then consider what you could have done differently or better to get a better outcome.

If more of us made a sustained effort to display love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our daily lives, I promise you, you’ll be a much happier, healthier person and so will those around you.

Why not start today?