Week 41: What is spiritual fruit and how does it grow?
Last week we talked about how to choose right over wrong. Well, the Bible is full of word pictures to help us understand which attitudes and actions are good and which ones God says are wrong. In this week’s Family Time, we’ll come across two word pictures that explain what spiritual fruit is and how it grows. Let’s get started!
Be ready to read the following passages:
Let’s start it.
As a family, talk about what is needed for fruit trees to be healthy and grow. Here’s a big hint: oranges, limes, and lemons grow best in states like Florida and California!
Let’s learn it.
Does fruit grow best in the light or in the dark? In the light, of course! Fruit trees need lots of sunshine to produce big, healthy fruit. If you live in the light of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit will help you to produce spiritual fruit that will please the Lord: what’s good, right, and true. Look back at Galatians 5:22-23 now to remind yourselves of what the Apostle Paul called the fruit of the Spirit.
Obeying God’s Word helps you to become a fruitful follower of Christ. Disobedience, however, does just the opposite. Read Ephesians 5:8-12 to see how God’s Word uses light and darkness to describe good and evil and right and wrong.
Becoming a follower of Jesus is like stepping out of the dark and into the light! We actually become “children of light.” You see, when you receive Jesus – the Light of the world – His Spirit begins to shine from within you. Think about the words Paul used to describe disobeying God: fruitless, darkness, and shameful. Christians shouldn’t take part in anything that resembles the actions of our old, sinful nature (Galatians 5:19-21).
Being ungrateful, unforgiving, or disobedient to your parents is disobedience to God. You might still slip up and sin occasionally, but those attitudes and actions shouldn’t be a habit for a child of God because we are children of light! When you choose right over wrong – as we talked about in last week’s Family Time – then you begin to produce spiritual fruit. The more you make wise choices, the more fruit you’ll grow. So let’s get growing!
Let’s discuss it.
- Name some attitudes and behaviors that do not show the light of Jesus. Which fruit of the Spirit is the opposite of each of those attitudes or behaviors?
- Which wrong attitudes and actions trip you up most often? What did you learn in this devotion that would help you to do better?
Let’s do it.
God has written His Word so that we can understand exactly what He wants us to know. He tells us that we should be “fruitful” and that spiritual fruit cannot grow in darkness. Knowing Jesus as your personal Savior puts God’s light in your heart. But living in that light each and every day is up to you. The choices you make will either be fruitful or fruitless.
Here’s a way to use God’s word picture of light and darkness to help you. Picture yourself stepping from a dark shadow into the bright sunshine. Choose to leave that thought, attitude, or behavior in the dark – where it belongs. Ask God to focus your attention on what is good, right, and true.