Fruit Bearing

I don't know where I got the idea that bearing fruit for the kingdom was winning souls to Christ.  It really does win souls but that is not what the fruit is.  The Bible is very clear what the fruit is and so how could I have thought otherwise.  I'll never know, I guess.  I know for sure what it is now, and I thought maybe someone else might be mixed up on this subject too.

Galatians 5:22,23  "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law."

Pretty clear isn't it?  If we have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we will win souls to the kingdom by the fruit that our lives produce.  Love is so important, to love like Jesus loves is beyond our doing, but we are told that "God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.  I want love like that, don't you?  Joy is another fruit that we are to bear, and God says that "in His presence is fullness of joy", so that's easy isn't it, to stay in His presence is fullness of joy?  Psalm 16:11.  Peace, Oh how much we need peace of mind in this world of turmoil, the Bible says that "we can have peace with God", in Roman 5:1. God fills our hearts and minds with peace when we trust in Him with all our hearts.  Longsuffering, how hard is it to have the patience that we need in this sinful world?  But the Bible says that we can be "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power for all patience and longsuffering with joy".  How wonderful is that?  Gentleness, we all know what it is to be gentle and kind, the Bible says to "take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."  Matthew 11:29.  How do we learn from Him, by reading His word, such a simple solution.  Goodness, what is goodness?  Psalm 16:2 says, "You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from you".  So a connection with Jesus imparts His goodness to us.  Faith, how hard is it to have faith?  It seems to escape our understand but Jesus says that "faith comes by hearing the word of God" so to have faith we need to steep ourselves in His word and we are promised faith.  Romans 10:17.
Meekness, humility, I am sure we know what humility is but how do we get it?  By submitting to one another" 1 Peter 5:5.  Humility is the opposite of pride, and by submitting to others in a humble spirit we become meek and lowly like Jesus.  Temperance, temperance covers a lot of territory in our lives,  it means to be cautious in all the things we do, sleep, get enough for our well being, eating, don't harm our bodies with what we put into them, the same with drink, work, don't over work so that we ruin our health, all these things we can be temperate in.  See 1 Corinthians 9:25 we are to be "temperate in all things".  The Bible says that there is no law condemning these things.

As you can see the fruit of the Spirit are gifts from God that we may obtain through our connection with Him.  How easy is that?  This little study this morning was very enlightening to me, I hope it has helped you in your walk with God, it surely has me. I want to be filled with all of these fruits of the Spirit so that I may be a good mother, friend and daughter of God.  How about you?  God bless you in your study.