Don’t you hate it when you buy a container of strawberries and you get home and the ones in the middle are rotten??? It seems, the people packing and inspecting the fruit decide to put the not so good ones in the middle and surround them with good fruit – making it LOOK appealing when you purchase the container.
But what happens? The rotten ones in the middle start contaminating and rotting the good ones around it.
That’s why we need to be inspectors of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. We can’t have hate in our heart and portray love to others. We may think we can fake it but eventually the rotten fruit, the hate in the heart, will come out and ruin the outside fruit.
We need to inspect our heart and the fruit that we produce.
Galatians 5:22-23 talks about the fruits of the spirit: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Ask yourself – am I more ________than last year? Fill in the blank with the fruits of the spirit. Am I more “patient” than I was last year? Am I more “loving” than I was last year? Do I have “joy” in my heart?
If you can’t answer YES to those questions, then do a personal inventory and inspect your life and your heart. Work through whatever you identify as holding you back and ask God for help to overcome anything that gets in the way of the Holy Spirit being fruitful in your life. When the Holy Spirit lives to the fullest in your life, the fruits of the spirit will be evident.
The last part of verse 23 says “Against such things there is no law.” To me this means that you can have as much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as you want. You can never have too much of these good things.
So take a little time today and inspect your fruit. I hope it’s ripe and very productive!
