Daily Devotional for Tuesday, February 4

The Fruit of the Spirit

"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.

While I may have mentioned that I was raised on a farm, I have not specified what kind of farm it was. There are many types of farming operations, livestock and row-cropping just to mention acouple. Our farm was a fruit producing operation with sixty-two acres of peach orchards. Bringing the fruit to maturity in its season was the focus of all activity on our farm. Fertilizing, pruning, spraying, weed control and irrigation were just a few of the labors that occupied our days the year round.

In spite of all our efforts, there were some trees that just did not produce well. They received the same attention, the same labors, yet, they failed to produce fruit. The unproductive trees looked like the others, were grown in the same climate and were undiscernible in most every way from their producing counterparts, but with one big difference: at harvest time there was no fruit.

Galatians identifies the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of abeliever. Verses 22 and 23 list nine qualities or attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. When believers are loving, joyful, good, faithful, moderate and mild, they are displaying the nature and work of the Holy Spirit within them.

Jesus reminded us that trees are identified exclusively by the fruit that they bear, "Ye shall know themby their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; buta corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Matthew 7:16, 17).

We all know Christ-professingpeople, who, like the above-mentioned barren fruit trees, fail to produce any spiritual fruit. While we cannot judge the soul of any person, could it be that the Spirit which forms the fruit isabsent?

CONSIDER THIS

God will form His character in you when you yield to the power of His Spirit.

John Nations