Blog # 63 GOOD FRUIT

Blog # 63 GOOD FRUIT Remember the time Jesus spoke about the fruit trees? ( Mat 7: 16 - 18, 20). He reminded us that a good tree brings forth good fruit and a bad tree brings forth bad fruit. By its fruit a tree is known. Jesus is teaching us here that our faith in Him should bear fruit, and that by the fruit of our lives, our good or bad deeds, our lives will be known and judged. At this point St Paul helps us when in his letter to the Galatians ( 5: 22) he tells us that the fruit of the Spirit, the effect of the Holy Spirit in us, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, moderation, and self-control. When we look to the difference that faith should make in our lives we look here, to see it we are joyful patient, kind and peaceful. When we are grumpy, stubborn, proud, and lazy we are not men and women of faith, and the works of the Spirit are not manifest in us. It is not that men and women of faith are not tempted, nor that they do not at times fall into sin, but that we think of our faith and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and strength. Then the spiritual peron in us wakes up and we are reminded of what we can and should be and do by faith. That is why it is so important that we stop and think from time to time as to what our faith means to us and what it should be doing for us. Only when we think of Jesus can He bless us personally and while we think of Him He can remind us of what He calls us to do and say. A man and woman of faith knows that God is real and is personally present to us. A man or woman of faith speaks to God in prayer. In the morning when we rise from bed our first thought is of God, to dedicate our lives to God and to ask God's help in our work each day. When we eat our meals we thank God for God's gifts of food and fellowship and ask that we be strengthened and nourished to do God's will. When the day is over we ask God's forgiveness for our faults and share with God again the joys we have known throughout the day, asking that He bless people in need and those we love, that He continue to keep us faithful and good, and that He accept out thanks for all of His gifts that we have known. That is being a good tree.