
WHAT IS YOUR ROOT SYSTEM?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law. —Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)
As I read this scripture, I thought to myself, “Girl, you’ve got some work to do!” I remembered a sermon I recently heard. The speaker quoted a beautiful Twitter post by J.D. Greear, saying, "You don’t grow fruit by focusing on the fruits. Fruit happens naturally when the roots are deep and healthy". The fruit is the outcome of investment in the source. You can’t force an outcome; you can only nurture the place it begins. This is true in so many circumstances. We can’t ensure people will love us; we can only treat them the way we want to be treated. We can’t guarantee that our children will grow into happy, successful adults, but we can pour our hearts into teaching and loving them. We don’t know whether we’ll get that promotion we’ve been after; instead, we can only do our best at work every day. We can’t control results, but we can control our investment.
When it comes to the fruits of the spirit, we can’t just jump to the end result. We wouldn’t expect tiny sapling to produce beautiful fruit; instead, we would nurture it with intentional time, love, and attention so it could grow into something magnificent. Similarly, we have to invest in our spiritual lives if we want them to bear fruit.
Here are some ways to invest in your spiritual life so that it can produce beautiful fruit;
