But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Matthew 7:16-17

At a recent First Priority club meeting, a student leader was supposed to share about the fruits of the Spirit. It was a message he had been asking to share for several weeks. But…he didn’t show up. I asked the other leaders if they had a message to share or if they would prefer that I step in and lead the meeting. Since it was before school, I could set my teaching hat aside and anyway, the scripture does say, “Against such things there is no law” right? They chose the latter and I prayed the Holy Spirit would speak through me.

I decided to stick with the originally intended message. The students filed in and I began with a question, “What does Christianity have to do with fruit?” I expected them to go straight to the fruit of the Spirit. They didn’t though. A student raised his hand and answered, “Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree and that’s why we sin.”

I thought, Well, that was a very deep answer to the question that led in NO WAY to talking about the fruit of the Spirit. So I enlisted the help of my student leaders to answer. I delivered the rest of the message, encouraging them to be a tree that bears good fruit. I ended by challenging them to Google “Fruit of the Spirit” and memorize those nine attributes.

As I do every week after First Priority, I took a prayer walk around my school. That’s when God gave me this revelation: Fruit! What those students answered DID have to do with the fruits of the Spirit. It was the consuming of a fruit that caused sin to enter the world. But it is also fruit that, when He consumes us, we exhibit as followers of Christ.

Today, I challenge you to ask yourself: “What fruit am I producing?”

Then, let’s pray for God’s guidance to lead us to repentance and fill us with His fruit.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the fruit of the Spirit that we exhibit through obedience to You. Help us display these qualities daily, and may others see Your fruit in us. Amen.

Copyright Morgan Preston.

Morgan is a former middle school language arts and social studies teacher. She is currently Christian Educators’ Marketing and Communications Coordinator and serves her middle school students and teachers through First Priority.