Day 8: Fruit That the Spirit Grows
Bible passage: Galatians 5:13–25; 1 Corinthians 13:4–7
What Is Growing in You?
Today is Wednesday 8th of January 2020. Welcome to Day 8 of our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. On Day 6 we saw that fruit comes from staying joined to Jesus. Today we look at the fruit itself.
When we give our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. In Galatians 5, Paul describes what the Spirit then begins to grow. He says that “the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives”, and he lists it: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22 (NLT)
Life in the Spirit
Free to Serve
Paul starts the passage with freedom. We have been called to live in freedom, he says, but we are not to use that freedom to please ourselves. We are to use it to serve one another in love. The whole law can be summed up in one command: love your neighbour as yourself (Galatians 5:13–14).
Fruit, Not Fruits
Paul does not list nine different fruits for us to pick and choose from. He describes one fruit with nine sides to it. It is what the character of Jesus looks like when it grows in a person.
And it is fruit. Nobody has ever heard an apple tree groaning with effort. Fruit grows naturally from a healthy tree. Our part is to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). The growing is His.
What Love Looks Like
Love comes first in the list, and the world has a hundred definitions of it. We do not have to guess what God means. He has spelled it out for us.
Love is patient and kind. It is not jealous, boastful, proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance (1 Corinthians 13:4–7).
Put the two passages side by side and you will see that they describe the same life. Patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control are simply love at work.
A Different Harvest
Paul is honest that another crop is possible. When we follow our sinful nature the results are plain to see: hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition and division (Galatians 5:19–21). Every day we choose which seed we will water.
Tending the Fruit
Three Steps for Today
Give thanks for what is growing. Which of these fruits come most easily to you and to your family? Thank God for them.
Ask about what is missing. Which one do you most need the Spirit to grow in you? Name it, and ask Him.
Keep in step. At one point today when you would normally react in the old way, stop and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you.
Prayer for Today:
Gracious God, thank You for Your Holy Spirit who lives in me, and for Jesus, who showed us what love looks like. Grow Your fruit in me, in my family and in our church. Where I am impatient, make me patient. Where I am harsh, make me gentle. Help me to keep in step with Your Spirit today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Keep going
See every day of this guide on our Prayer & Fasting page.
Let us pray with you: send a prayer request.
Join one of our prayer meetings.
