THE ORIGINAL SOURCE FOR WOMEN'S LEADERS SINCE 2001

Fruit of the Harvest

Women's Devotion

Julia Bettencourt

October 12, 2023

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23 (KJV)

I love the whole idea of the harvest. Don't you? There is all that beautiful fruit, the veggies, and the grains. I enjoy seeing the fruition of all those things that grow from those tiny seeds. Just passing by a beautiful golden wheat field makes me happy. There is such goodness to see all over the place that started from little seeds and kernels!

Think about those fruits we consider fall fruits like pumpkins, cranberries, pears, and apples. Mmmmm! Pumpkin and apple pies make Thanksgiving a happy time. Pears cooked with cinnamon and brown sugar make a delicious fall dessert. And I don't know about you, but cranberry muffins in the fall make me smile. Even more so when there is a cup of coffee to go with one of those muffins.

I have been mulling over that fruit of the Spirit that we are to be known by as Christians. Occasionally it is hard to tell what is good and what is bad fruit. On the outside we can sometimes look so nice. We can say the right things in public. We can go to church. We can join in with the singing on Sundays. But then when we think nobody is looking, we honestly show what our fruit is really like.

Let's investigate and test the fruit that is in our fruit garden.

1. Is it FAVORABLE Fruit?

If we want people to enjoy a fruit pie or dessert we've made, then it has to have some flavor. Right? We can't have flavor without starting with some favorable fruit. Nobody wants a fruit pie that is made from rotten fruit. That fruit has to be pleasing or we won't desire it.

In other words, is our fruit good or bad? We want to be bearing that good fruit when it comes to the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We want our behavior and our speech to be favorable fruit.

We see what good fruit is in Ephesians 5:22-23. We need to bear love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (self-control). All those are wonderful favorable fruits in a nutshell. Each one helps make our character Christ-like.

2. Is it RECOGNIZABLE Fruit?

Sometimes I'll see a picture of a fruit online and I'll be like, is that an orange or a grapefruit? Or maybe it's hard to tell at the grocery store just because sometimes they graft different varieties of fruit together into one thing. It's then that I'm left wondering what it really is that I'm holding in my hand at the time.

I sure hope people recognize my fruit of the Spirit. I don't want love to look like selfishness or something. I have to make sure I'm displaying my fruit in the right way. Everything I do must be above board and above reproach. There shouldn't be any questions that the fruit I am bearing is good fruit and fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said they will know us by our fruit (Matthew 7:16) , so I want good fruit. I want people to recognize me as a Christian by how I act.

3. Is it UNCOMPROMISING Fruit?

I think of uncompromising fruit as that fruit that is just right. If it should be firm and crisp, then it is. If it should be a little softer when it's ripe, then it should be that way. You all know what a good fruit looks like. It's not straggly, limp, or rotten. It has flavor and all that goodness that makes it a nice quality fruit.

One thing that as Christians we can't compromise on is the Word of God. Staying in the Word helps us bear that strong and healthy fruit of the Spirit.

4. Is it IMPACTFUL Fruit?

For fruit to make a difference in how it tastes in recipes, it has to be good fruit with good qualities. Don't you think? Our fruit of the Spirit has to pack a punch too. We have to leave an impact on the world. Just look again at what the fruits of the Spirit are. They are good things. And we can influence the world with the good fruit that we bear.

Love

Just love alone can impact the world in such a wonderful way. Even Jesus said that's how we will be known as Christians is by our love.

Joy

And then look at how joy can uplift people. There are so many hurting people in the world. Let's spread that joy fruit around. Let's show the world how Jesus can truly give us joy.

Peace

Think about the unrest in our world. Christians are in charge of bearing peace. Just watch the news. People need peace in this unsettling world. We have to show them that peace that only Jesus can give.

Longsuffering

Some refer to this as forbearance or patience. People that are longsuffering are strong and patient. They even put up with other people's bad fruit, but they do it with grace and dignity. Christ was the ultimate example of this. Look how He endured what all was done to Him, especially leading up to the cross.

There are hurt and stressed-out people all around us that could use a little longsuffering in their lives. We must learn to have patience, not just with things, but with other people as well.

Gentleness

Look at the impact that kindness can have just in a single moment of someone's life that needs it. As Christians, we can leave an imprint on the world with gentleness and kindness.

Goodness

What a wonderful fruit of the Spirit! Do you know where we can get some goodness to display in our daily lives? I think we can go to the source of goodness. Spend time with Jeus. Spend time in the Word and in prayer and that goodness fruit will start growing.

Faith

I like watching the faith of new Christians grow, but I also love watching it grow in my own life. I always feel like when my faith has a good crop that I can handle life so much better.

Meekness

Meek doesn't mean weak. I was taught that meekness just means that you turn your energy and efforts outward to other people instead of making everything about you. It's the opposite of being all about yourself. It's all about the humbleness of mind that helps us deal with other people without getting angry, upset, or losing our testimony.

Temperance

This is basically our self-control. I think we all struggle with growing a lot of this one. Don't you? I think that's because we must have self-control in every area of our life, and believe me, that is hard for anyone.

Think about the things in our modern age alone that we need to have self-control over such as our cell phones, our streaming choices, our computer browsing, and game playing. It might be easy for us in relation to just whether things are edifying and right or wrong, but what about our time and energies that we put into those things? That's where self-control is so needed.

And then think about self-control in relation to our time in other aspects of our lives. And what about all those feelings like anger, annoyance, and even just our emotions in general that we need to keep under control? And then on top of that, we have our tongues to keep reined in where that self-control fruit is concerned. Biting back the words we shouldn't say is hard work! For me, this fruit is one of the hardest to bear consistently, but when we have self-control, we keep sin under control.

5. Is it TASTEFUL Fruit?

Tasteful fruit is just that. It tastes good! For us that means that our behavior is good and appropriate for a Christian.

Are we leaving a good taste on the world? How do others feel after we have spoken with them? Do they feel uplifted and encouraged? Do we make others feel loved by how we treat them? Do we encourage others with kindness? Are we sharing Christ with others by how we act and speak? All those things reflect back on how tasteful our fruit is as Christians.

Final Thoughts

We can see that all of these fruits of the Spirit not only make us better people when we grow them in our lives, but these fruits can hugely affect the whole world around us. All these things are needed for us to reach others for the Lord.

When it comes to harvesttime and my fruit of the Spirit, I want something to show. Don't you? I want to bear good fruit and have that good fruit on display.

Just look at what those next verses in Galatians say after it lists the fruit of the Spirit.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:24-26 (KJV)

It all boils down to dying to self and living for Christ. That's how we bear good fruit.

Fruit goes through a lot of checks and tests before we see it in our grocery stores. The quality, acidity, firmness, ripeness, color, and all those things are checked. Let's test our fruit and ask those questions that I mentioned.

Is it FAVORABLE fruit?
Is it RECOGNIZABLE fruit?
Is it UNCOMPROMISING fruit?
Is it IMPACTFUL fruit?
Is it TASTEFUL fruit?

I'm sure we all need to work in our fruit of the Spirit gardens a little more. We might need to prune out any bad fruit that we've been growing. We can't keep things around that block the growth of those good fruits. Gardening takes some weed pulling and there may be some selfishness, anger, resentment, or other things that are choking out our good fruit. That's when we have to get in there and pull weeds and prune.

Doing a little gardening will make room for Christ to shine in our lives. We must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so our fruit garden will grow all that lovely fruit mentioned in Galatians. In the end we want to see good fruit in our gardens when it comes to harvesttime.

So, how's your fruit garden growing?

Download a printable tag for this devotional acrostic here.