Gardening our Hearts until Joy Grows

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy.......(Gal 5:22a)


What does fruit on a tree indicate? Well it indicate whether the tree is healthy or not right? Whether it is a good tree, or a bad tree. The fruit of an apple tree is apples. The fruit of an orange tree is oranges. The fruit indicates the orange-ness, or the apple-ness of the tree. My Dad in the past has given us pots with dirt and a small plant growing out of it. He will tell us that we will have to wait until they grow some and start producing fruit in order to find out what kind of plant he has just given us. The evidence that my Dad has actually planted a good plant or a bad plant, and what kind of plant it is, will become apparent over time.

What will hinder the plants growth? Well one of the things that will hinder the growth of the plant is the kind of soil my Dad placed the plant in. Did he put it in gravel? Pea-rock? Sand? Dirt pulled from a field that already had many weed seeds in it? Or good, rich, weedless black dirt?

I am thankful that he must place the plants in good, weedless soil because the plants do grow and are not choked out by weeds. And it does become evident what type and kind of plant he planted over time.

The fruit of an apple tree is apples. The fruit of the Spirit is JOY.

The evidence that the Spirit lives in a person is that the person has joy. If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit of God dwells inside of you. The measure of joy a Christian has will be dependent upon what kind of soil, and how many weeds are around the plant. The soil is your heart, and the weeds in the soil that grow up around the plant is sin.

If you are a Christian, the list of fruits in Galatians 5 are in you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. All of these are in you. They are the "fruit" of the Spirit, they ARE what the Spirit produces. They are the evidence of the Spirit's presence. But what hinders how high the plants grow, and how many of each kind of fruit each plant has? It is the weeds, which is sin.

We as Christians are to be weed pullers. We are to pull the weeds of sin from around the fruit plants so that they flourish and produce an abundance of good and sustaining fruit.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24)


Do you remember the description of Jesus being crucified? We are to be as diligent to pull the weeds in our hearts as the Pharisees were in killing Jesus. They were relentless until his last breath.