Fruitful

God has been teaching me lately about being fruitful as a Christian. I have always thought that when the Bible said anything about bearing fruit, it meant accomplishing something for the Lord. Like starting a ministry or serving God in some special way.

But God has shown me recently, that when the Bible talks about bearing fruit it usually doesn’t talk about an accomplishment, but rather a character trait. In Galatians 5 the Bible says:

^“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

(NIV, Galatians 5:22-23)

The fruit of the Spirit that the Bible lists comes as a result of having the Holy Spirit transform us into Christlikeness. It doesn’t say that the fruit of the Spirit is serving at church, hospitality, and helping the poor. Those good deeds come as a result of becoming a more loving, kind, and faithful person. But they are not the fruit of the Spirit in themselves.

The fruit of the Spirit is Christlike character, and the result of that character is doing good.

In our self-sufficient, independent culture, it can be easy to believe that in order to produce fruit in our lives, we just need to vow to be a kinder and better person, memorize Bible verses about how to have more peace and joy, and focus our prayers on asking God for more fruit in our lives.

I’ve tried that approach, but it didn’t work. Why? Because I was focusing on seeking the fruit when I should have been seeking God. I was trying to cultivate the fruit myself instead of cultivating my relationship with God that would then naturally result in Christlikeness.

In John 15, the Bible says:

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

(NIV, John 15:4)

We are called to bear fruit as branches that are connected to the vine, our Creator. We are not called to create the fruit independently from God, but rather by abiding in Him. And then once we bear that fruit of love and peace in our lives, it will naturally overflow to others in the form of us helping our neighbors or serving at church.

It is always important to keep God at the center of everything we do and not trust in our own abilities and hard work to produce fruit in our lives. It is very easy for a ministry to become an idol in our hearts, which ironically makes it practically impossible for us to bear fruit.

In Jeremiah 17, the Bible says:

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

(NIV, Jeremiah 17:7-8)

The Bible says that we will be blessed if we trust in the Lord and not have any idols before Him. Abiding in God is what makes us fruitful regardless of the struggles and circumstances we may face in life.

More importantly, trusting in the Lord for the first time gives us the gift of salvation. The Bible says:

“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

(ESV, John 4:14)

In Romans the Bible also says:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(ESV, Romans 6:23)

If we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and repent of our sins, then our sins will be forgiven and our eternal future in Heaven will be secure.

Below is a time-lapse of this painting: