Theme:

"Living and Enjoying 
the Fruit of the Spirit"

Fruit:  FAITHFULNESS
continued

The surprising thing about our Christian character is that one minute our fruit of the Spirit may be a well-rounded cluster of grapes and the very next minute our guard is down and we let in the foxes of pride and selfishness.  Then, what happens?  Our cluster becomes shriveled. The Holy Spirit is grieved and quenched when we do not let Him exercise full control over us (Ephesians 4;30; I Thessalonians 5:19).  The Holy Spirit is jealous of anything that prevents us from bearing the fruit of a godly character. That is what is meant by the verse, "The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy" (James 4:5).  With a longing that we human beings cannot understand, the Holy Spirit yearns to control all our thoughts and actions.  Only so can He carry out the teaching-guiding-helping-comforting ministry that the Lord sent Him to perform in our hearts.

But look at our character after we have grieved and quenched the Holy Spirit!  What a sorry sight!  Our love and joy and peace are damaged as well as our longsuffering and gentleness and goodness.  The shriveled grapes are a good picture of how sour and disagreeable we feel inside.  We are full of self-pity, the worst of all soul-diseases.  We enjoy being crabby and snapping at people.  So, naturally the foxes feast on our faithfulness and meekness and self-control, also.

That isn't bearing the fruit of the Spirit, is it?  All this never would have happened to us if we had been faithfully trusting and obeying the Lord and depending on the Holy Spirit to prompt us to be on the alert against those destructive foxes of pride and selfishness. 

 Jesus said, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10).  You see, it is steadfast faithfulness in loving and obeying the Lord, not ability, that He approves.  The two-talent servant in the Bible story, who had respect for his master and obeyed him, received the same commendation for faithfulness as the five-talent servant (Matthew 25:20-23).

Our Lord wants us to have initiative in our characters.  That is, He wants us, as branches in Him, the Vine, to have consistently well-rounded, fruitful characters.  To be what Jesus expects, we must persevere--keep on-even when we don't feel like it.  We should be "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (I Corinthians 15:58).

The Apostle Paul rated faithfulness high, especially commending it in Timothy, his son in the Lord (I Corinthians 4:17), as did John in Gaius.  It is good for us to stop as we read Bible verses like Third John 1 and 5 and ask ourselves what would be Paul's and John's opinions of OUR faithfulness--our Bible reading, our prayer life, our church attendance, etc.  God says to us, "Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

How it must grieve the Lord, who ever "abideth faithful" (II Timothy 2:13, to find us who are united to Him as branches to the Vine, wavering in our faith, love and zeal toward Him!  How sorrowful He must feel to see us so thoughtless and lazy--not caring for lost souls whom we contact every day and never trying to reach them for Him!

"He looks for His likeness reflected
In lives that are yielded and true;
He's looking for zeal in the winning
Of souls He's entrusted to you."
--Nothing But Leaves; Stanza 2
--Mrs. H. S. Lehman

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"The Fruit of the Spirit"
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