Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:22-25 (day seven)
When people notice the deficiencies in their fruit, they attempt to add more things into their life to try to bring the fruit out. This becomes difficult because fruit is not a direct product of works. However, Paul cleverly shows us how we can produce more fruit. Both the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit are sandwiched between two very important commands.
Verse 16 “walk by the Spirit”
Verse 25 “keep in step with the Spirit”
If you want to produce more fruit, you follow the Spirit. The more we follow the Spirit, the more we will be transformed into His likeness. As we become more like Him, our fruit will naturally become more prevalent. It doesn’t take more works to become more like Him. Scale back, listen, wait, watch, and follow. It’s just baby steps: put one foot after the other and follow the leading of the Spirit. Baby steps in the footprint of the Spirit will cause leaps in our production of His fruit.
I LOVED your spirit sandwich analogy, Rick. Perfect.
Thank you, Rick. It is so easy to think that if we just try harder, work longer, put more effort into serving God that it will produce that fruit that is everlasting. But it is actually in the daily submitting, confessing, listening for His voice and being obedient to follow when the fruit naturally comes.