Nurturing a Fruitful Life in Christ: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

It happened again. I found myself in a situation with a prickly person, difficult to get along with every time we connected. I determined to be more patient when we interacted, but failed miserably. So I berated myself and determined to try harder the next time. I needed more patience. I wanted more patience. But the outcome was a constant cycle of failure.

Galatians 5:22-23 tells us the fruit of the Spirit is given to every Christian, yet why do so many believers wish they were filled with more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

Where is the disconnect? Why is there a disconnect? What are we missing? These questions inspired me to explore the fruit of the Spirit more deeply. What I learned became the basis for Flourish: Grace-Centered Practices to Protect and Grow a Fruitful Life in Christ.

Nurturing the fruit of the Spirit is dependent on four key points that form the basis of each chapter of Flourish.

1. Recognize the enemy’s tactics:
   

   We have a spiritual enemy and understand how he works. What are the temptations and distractions he employs to stunt the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of Christians?

2. Nurture a right perspective:
   

   Identify how God views each display of the Spirit’s fruit. I quickly discovered that our understanding of His fruit did not always align with what God said about it in His Word! For example, one of the first things I learned is that the Bible speaks of this fruit as singular, rather than plural. It is one fruit revealed in nine different ways—a package deal!

3. Recover and grow the Spirit’s fruit:
   

   Examine how to use what we learn to recover and grow the fruit of the Spirit God promised to us in abundance.

4. Share the harvest:

   Explore how we can share the Spirit’s fruit to bless others too.

A fruitful life in Christ is evident when we increasingly resemble our Savior. The Bible speaks of being transformed or conforming to the image of Christ. This does not happen by trying harder, working smarter, and doing better. We frequently fall into the trap of thinking we can reach deep into ourselves to find the power we need. But I love what the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:10 (niv). He told us to “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” Did you catch that? We are to be strong, but the source of our strength is God’s mighty power, not our own.

Cultivating the Spirit’s fruit happens as we surrender to the Lord’s leading, just as Christ, in His earthly ministry, was fully surrendered to the will of His Father. Surrender is key. Unfortunately, many of us don’t always know how to do that. The word surrender often reflects negative connotations. Many in our culture—even Christians—associate it with weakness and defeat. So we say we are surrendered to the Lord, and then, either consciously or subconsciously, we hold back in some areas. We fool ourselves into thinking that by retaining control, life will be better or easier. And we forget that we never really had control anyway.

This process can appear intimidating, and our spiritual enemy prompts us to give up before we even start. After all, we’re only human, right? Failure is part of our DNA, so why bother trying? Satan does not want us to grow in these characteristics that will cause us to resemble our Savior.

But the nurture of the fruit of the Spirit happens as God’s Holy Spirit works in us by His grace. Yes, we’ll have successes and failures on a daily basis. But even though we can tend to beat ourselves up, God does not beat us up. Instead, He encourages and equips us in the process of surrender. Because surrender is a process, and one in which we need His help.

Growing in fruitfulness is not a one-and-done task. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can experience and enjoy the abundant life Jesus promised us as we abide in Him day by day and reflect Christ to a watching world!

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Flourish: Grace-Centered Practices to Protect and Grow a Fruitful Life in Christ by Ava Pennington is available wherever you purchase your favorite books!