GALATIANS 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

TO PONDER

I grew up in South West Victoria, in a region that has a few defining industries, forestry, fishing, and aluminium smelting to name a few but it was, and still is, predominantly driven by agriculture. There is one Lutheran high school in the area, it was a one hour bus ride from my house and it is where my parents sent me to school. It was actually a great school, I'm certainly not complaining, but one of the specialty subjects of this school was Agricultural Science.

I was amazed when it came to learning about orchards, fruit trees, and the process of 'grafting'. For those unfamiliar with the process it simply involves taking a branch or cutting from one tree, inserting that branch into a small incision in the trunk of another tree, binding the area around the incision to guard the tree from infection and insect infestation and, if the process goes well, the branch is integrated into the host tree. That's an overly simplified explanation of the process, but the cool thing about it is, provided that you stay within closely related fruit families, you can graft a pear tree branch to an apple tree, and end up with a tree bearing both apples and pears. Perhaps you prefer stone fruit, then try grafting a branch from a nectarine tree onto a peach tree. Perhaps citrus is your thing, why not go for an orange tree that will also produce lemons, limes, and grapefruit?!

In many ways, this is a good way to think about fruits of the Spirit. On our own we are not very good at producing any of these things. And yet, God the gardener does this amazing thing where he unites us with His Holy Spirit which taps into our capacity to bear good fruit and helps us to do exactly that. We can strive all we like to be more loving, have more joy, be at peace and so on, but without being grafted with the Holy Spirit, we just don't have it in us.

Discipline and practice are important and worthy pursuits, but growth only comes are we remain in Jesus the vine, apart from him, we can do nothing.

PRAYER: Jesus, you are the vine and I am only a branch, I cannot live without being connected completely to you. Help me and my life to bear fruit for your kingdom and when I find that I have grafted myself to things that are not you, draw me back to you by your Holy Spirit and graft me back into your light and life. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle