FRUIT

I think over the last few years I’ve learned to appreciate fruit a lot more than I ever did in the past. Finding out I was a diabetic made me change my priorities in terms of eating. One of those changes was to switch from candy and other forms of processed sugar to fruit.

I had enjoyed fruit to a certain degree before I found out I had diabetes, but it is a whole different matter when it is your ONLY choice in terms of sugar. Yet I have been grateful to the Lord that he has made it something I’ve learned to enjoy as opposed to always craving chocolate, ice cream and such.

On a spiritual level the concept of fruit in the scriptures is associated with results of our faith and obedience to the Lord. We produce the fruit of our calling that others can use for their own spiritual nutrition.

I can’t begin to reflect upon how many sermons I’ve heard about the important of Christians bearing fruit. And there is also the mention of the Fruit of the Spirit. That of course is related to the fruit that we experience in our soul as a result of the Holy Spirit being in our lives. There is mention of such things as love, joy and peace among others.

What I wonder about is how many times we seek or have more of an appetite for the candy of this life for our “fix” of things like love, joy and peace or the others fruit of the Spirit? I think it is a fair question.

And I think just as there is natural fruit verses man’s version in candy, so with the fruit of the spirit there are always the man-made versions. Yet perhaps just a natural fruit is far better for our bodies on a nutritional level so then the fruit of the Holy Spirit are more nutritional for our spiritual well being than any man made versions.

I think Satan is aware of this and how enduring the real fruit of the Spirit can be to a soul. Which is why he does inspire so many artificial means. It is such a deceptive lure that works in getting us to snack on some quick fix of emotion and convince ourselves it will last as opposed to seeking God’s real fruit.

Sadly, there are houses of worship where I think at times they really try to blend too much of the artificial fruit into the pure taste of God’s fruit. A dash of humanism, some seasoning of prosperity to fuel the taste buds of the soul for more and pretty soon the real fruit sort of gets forgotten.

It is time upon occasion to take a moment and visit God’s garden of reflection and enjoy the fruit of his trees. Isn’t is interesting that in the Garden of Eden that fruit had both the power to give life and also knowledge. One was a blessing the other a curse. Yet just like with artificial fruit how many times do we choose the wrong kind of fruit in our own lives? I’m not accusing, just pointing it out for a point of thought. May we all savor the taste of the fruit of the spirit more than the candy of this life.