Fruit Salad

I know, after yesterday, the last thing anyone wants to think about is food! However, I have been thinking about the fruit of the Spirit lately. I happened to be reading through the book of Galatians recently and I noticed for the first time that the word “fruit” is singular.

Up until now I had thought of the list in Galatians as just that, a list. Or maybe a staircase, first we are given love, then joy, then peace and so on. Moving step by step on our journey with Jesus. The problem with this thinking, as I discovered the other day, is that it can still lean into the works category of thinking, and it is also incorrect!

The significance of the word being “fruit” instead of “fruits” is that when we do accept Jesus into our lives we are given the seeds of all of this fruit right away, not one by one. In my incorrect thinking, I thought we acquired them step by step as we grew in our understanding of God, the Bible etc., all of which are works-based. In actuality the Holy Spirit does all the planting, watering and growing. We just need to be willing and not hinder His work in our lives and yield to His leading.

So back to the fruit salad. Fruit salad is one dish, but it is made up of several types of fruit, all different. When we eat it, sometimes there might be more banana in a bite or more grapes. I think the fruit of the Spirit is the same, it is one, but as we need a quality such as gentleness, that is what the Spirit will develop in us or have bubble to the surface.

So just as we are still full from our Thanksgiving feasts from yesterday, my prayer for us is that we will also be full of the Holy Spirit and that the fruit of the Spirit will continue to grow in our lives.