Daily Devotional – July 20, 2020

And today probably feels, you know, like it's, we've had a cold front come through or something. So I understand that over the weekend we were in under a heat bubble. That's what they called it anyway.

So big bubble of heat and a nice warm weekend. But when I first saw the forecast early last week for the weekend, it was talking about mid nineties on Saturday and mid to upper nineties on Sunday. And so then, uh, coming to, you know, as it turns out only in the low nineties and the, uh, and upper eighties, that's, that's pretty good.

I'll take it. Well, I, all that's really good for the garden and I believe along with some rain. So how's your garden doing? We're starting to see some fruits. I hope we've been seeing some, the strawberries of course are already done.

Um, we've harvested a few huge yellow zucchinis out of the garden. So we've gotten some fruit from the, from the zucchini vines and, um, the peas are blooming and, and, uh, producing and the beans are, are, are stringing along, um, tomatoes, not doing so well.

We have a few that are still green and hanging on the vines, but you know, the vines themselves are not looking so good. Nevertheless, there's still, still some fruit that's hanging on there. And thinking about all that fruit reminds me of what Jesus said when he kind of gave us the, um, he kind of gave us the key to fruit in the Christian life.

Abiding in Christ as the Source of Fruit

And he said in John chapter 15 verses four and five, abide in me and I in you. And as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me, I'm the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he, it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.

So I hope you're abiding in the vine that you're staying close to the Lord and keeping in fellowship with him that he might produce, that fruit in your life that, um, the spirit of God intends to produce.

The Fruit of the Spirit in Daily Christian Life

Um, we read about that fruit of the spirit in Galatians five, right? Verse 22, 23, the fruit of the spirit, the singular fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

And maybe you look at a list like that and say, well, you know, I can think of some of those aspects of fruit that I could sure use some, use some development of. Well, I understand that and the fruit development in the Christian life is a lifelong thing, isn't it?

Fruit in Its Season

I was looking last night in our evening service at Psalm one and the person who's happy and the truly happy person is one who ends up living a life of fruitfulness. He's fruitful unto the Lord. Verse three of Psalm one says he brings forth his fruit in his season.

There's an interesting thing about the way that's stated. He brings forth his fruit in his season. Fruit, different fruit comes out and ripens at different times of the year, different seasons of the year, doesn't it?

It's like the right fruit comes out at just the right time. Now, for example, for example, when do you need the fruit of patience? When you're going through a time of affliction, when do you need the fruit of gratitude?

You could argue that you always need to be grateful and you do. You need to be grateful, be thankful in all things, but especially need that fruit of gratitude in a time of great blessing and prosperity.

And the reason for that is we can tend to get so caught up in the prosperity that we forget to be grateful for it. We're so focused on the great blessing, the prosperity we're enjoying. We need the fruit of zeal, for example, in a time of God-given opportunity.

We need the fruit of self-control when we're especially in a time of temptation and vulnerable. We need the fruit of long-suffering in a time of adversity. All of this reminds me of something I heard a pastor say, a pastor I served under many years ago now, in his sermon.

I believe it was probably on the fruit of the Spirit. I'm not really sure, but I remembered the illustration he used. He talked about reading of some believers in church history that endured tremendous amount of persecution.

Some even gave their lives and lost their lives in those times of persecution. And as he read about those, he said, I've often wondered, I don't think I could do that. I don't think I could handle that.

Have you thought the same thing? Have you felt the same way? I remember reading a few years ago biography of a woman who, a missionary woman, I believe, who was taken captive, put in a prisoner of war camp during World War II, and separated from her husband, and just day after day after day of deprivation.

And I read of her plight and her anguish and her agony and yet her endurance. And I wondered as I thought about putting myself in her place, would I be able to do that? Could I handle that? Well, the pastor that I was listening to years ago, he was referencing those kinds of experiences.

And he said, as of right this moment, I don't see how I could possibly handle it. But if I were placed in that position and the need arose, God would give me the fruit of the spirit that I needed at that time.

I don't need the grace to endure horrific persecution when I'm not enduring horrific persecution. The one who is blessed of the Lord, who is abiding in Christ, who is trusting in Christ, he brings forth his fruit in its season.

The tree, you, planted by that river of water, you bring forth the fruit that the season requires as God in his grace produces that fruit in you. Well, I hope that's an encouragement to you today. And maybe that'll encourage you to pray in a particular way regarding some aspect of the fruit of the spirit that maybe you sense you need right now.

And pray for God in his grace to provide it and bring it in your life and watch and see how he produces that fruit. Well, let's pray and ask the Lord to bring forth abundantly in our lives. So Father, we do thank you that you are the Lord of the harvest and you bring forth abundant fruit.

I pray that as we abide in Christ, the vine, that he would so work in through us and by your grace you would produce an abundant harvest of fruit in our lives. We give ourselves to you to that end and we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. All right. Well, I hope you have a good rest of your Monday and that your work week gets off to a good start. Looking forward to joining with you each day for these times of devotions and hope you can make it.

So have a good day. God bless.