Fruit

I had a vision last night. I was trying to imagine the different ways the fruits of the Spirit show up in my character. We learn from Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). While I was thinking about different times I’ve been loving or joyful, the image of a guitar came to mind. Each fruit represents a different string, and the more time you spend with the Lord, the more He tunes them so they all blend in a beautiful harmony. Sometimes we are out of tune, and a good reason for that might be because we are out of our Word or out of prayer.

Then the vision went even further. Situationally, we might need our fruit to show up in different ways. We might need to play a different note on our guitar and switch our finger placement on each string. I thought about a scenario where I was trying to be there for a friend struggling with sin. My love isn’t going to sound like sin is okay and life is short; it’s going to sound like I love them enough to make sure they know that the Lord wants better for them. But where my love would sound similar to ‘it’s okay and we can move on’ could be if my friend was stuck in shame for their past. Like any good guitarist, we need knowledge of the chords we’re meant to be playing at any given time. So how do we know what chords to play? The answer might be that we’d rely on wisdom.

Interestingly, wisdom is not a fruit of the Spirit that Paul describes. King Solomon tells us that wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). Reverence for the Lord is the bedrock for the spiritual insight necessary to respond fruitfully in different scenarios. If we didn’t fear God, we wouldn’t want to do right by Him and respond to others in the way that He would desire us to in the first place. What I understand is that the Lord is the songwriter; the more time we spend singing His songs, studying them, and meditating on them, the better we will be at playing the proper chords on a well-tuned guitar. By that I mean that the time we spend in worship, in our Bibles, and in prayer, the more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control we will have, and the more valuable these things will be to other people through us.

What God Wants From Us

Human nature and free will make me feel insane sometimes. The commands that God has for us and what He teaches about how to live make perfect sense. They are the easy way of life, yet we find it incredibly hard to follow. Why is that? If it were easy to follow the path of righteousness, I suppose we'd maybe think we don't need God as much. It's similar to the trials and adversity sin causes in our lives that eventually bring us closer to God. Still, what He asks of us and the ease of His yoke is the cheat code to a calm, peaceful, and joyous life. Jesus says: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” — Matthew 11:29,30.

Let’s start from the beginning when God gave Moses the 10 commandments. Number one: “You shall have no other gods before me.” — Exodus 20:3. There are no real gods except YAHWEH. Praise, worship, and trust in anything besides Him are a waste of time, energy, and can sometimes pull you into demonic places that you are better off avoiding. Number two: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” — Exodus 20:4. This kind of ties back to the first one. How can we create idols out of things that our Creator made? How could we worship the stars without putting the One who made them higher?

Third, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord, your God." — Exodus 20:7. Misusing God's name or cursing with His name is not good for anybody. We should praise His name and utilize it for the good He intended. Next: "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" — Exodus 20:8. He gives us an entire day to replenish and rest. I don't remember the last time I didn't work on a Sunday. Many people honor this today and say it changes the whole trajectory of their weeks. This is the ease of our Father's yoke, he values our rest more than we probably do. “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you." — Exodus 20:12. Barring any type of abusive situations, the Lord is trying to save us from heartbreak and pointless strife. Disrespecting our parents only causes us guilt later on in life and creates divides where we should be united.

"You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal" — Exodus 20:13-15. These are all things that could be done out of pride. These are all things that are extremely avoidable but could cause the most damage in our lives. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" — Exodus 20:16. Seems easy enough, yet we all gossip, we all get our facts wrong, we all do it. "You shall not covet.." — Exodus 20:17. We are called to be kind and gracious to people. To celebrate their wins and not be jealous of them. It's much more peaceful to celebrate people than to be bitter toward their successes. Unfortunately, we all find a green monster in us at one point or another.

Everything God commands us to do is for our good. Moses says that the fear of God will keep us from sinning in Exodus 20. We don’t fear Him like we are terrified of Him and want to avoid Him. We fear Him, as in we care about pleasing Him, and we care about doing right by Him, so we don't disappoint Him. God hates sin so much because not only does it separate us from Him, but it also causes unnecessary chaos and darkness in our lives that He doesn’t want for us. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” — Jeremiah 29:11. God’s will for our lives is peace, prosperity, love, joy, and good. Sin produces none of that at best and the opposite most of the time.

God wants what is good for us and has even made sin a way for us to grow closer to Him through our suffering. It’s impossible to be perfect, which is one of the more frustrating parts. It seems easy not to kill someone, not to lust, not to be addicted to things. With our free will and the presence of evil, these things often feel impossible not to do. It’s not impossible for most people not to murder, but Jesus teaches: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” — Matthew 5:21. My understanding, and this is different for many Christians, is that Jesus covered our sins through dying on the cross. He took them on as His own, and we owe Him our lives. He knows we cannot be perfect, but the position of our hearts should be toward Him, and we should repent when we get it wrong. He expects that when we struggle with sin, we should bring it to His feet and try our best to cleanse it from our lives. We don’t get into heaven by our works, but by the works of the Lamb. As long as we are making strides to change our habits, to stop living of the world, and giving our Father all of the praise, listening to Him, worshiping Him, loving Him, we will please Him.