There is a bowl of fruit on the table and its variety is enchanting. Some of the fruit is rough-skinned and some smooth; some is shiny and some is dull; some I can eat in one bite on the run and some I can chew my way through at my leisure.
There is also a rainbow of colours, red, yellow, green, orange, brown, purple and even a hint of blue.
I am encouraged to indulge but let me tell you where there are similar bowls of fruit so that you can be indulgent, too. There is one at the little convenience store down by the bridge; there is another at the Post Office around the corner; there is one in my neighbour’s house, and a huge one in the church along the street.
In fact, wherever I go I find bowls of fruit because wherever the Spirit of God is, there are bowls of good fruit.
However, fruit is not for mere decoration, it is not there just to make the place look pretty, it has a serious purpose. Fruit is food; it is meant to be eaten and we are fruit-bearers in order to feed people.
Our fruit is not the malice, murder and mayhem that some bowls provide, but ours is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness wrapped in gentleness, fruitfulness and self-control. (Galatians 5:19-22). It is real fruit, not pretend stuff and it is the very nourishment that the whole world needs.
Always remember, Jesus did not ask the Spirit to fill your bowl with anything less than the best fruit in the market. He filled you with nourishing fruit so that you can indulge yourself and not only yourself but nourish the whole world with the fruit He has chosen for you.
Are you ready for some serious self-indulgence? And will you share it?
‘For where light is, there is a harvest of goodness, righteousness, and truth,’ (as the REB translation says;) or from the King James, ‘For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.’ (Ephesians 5:9).
Elizabeth Price