"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Is that what others see in your life? If not, then either you don't know God or you are living outside of fellowship with Him." - Galatians 5:22-23
Apart of wellness is taking care of our spirit and so I want you to check and make sure that on today and moving forward, you are bearing good fruit! In the scripture above, we are given the blueprint of what bearing good fruit in our lives look like (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc.). You can say all day long that you are bearing good fruit but what do others say about you in your presence or when you're absent from theirs? That's what's important, how you make people feel when they are around you and can speak on your goodness when you're not even in the room.
I used to struggle with self-control because I didn't know how to manage my emotions and would just say whatever flew out of this pistol of a mouth of mine. Now, and thank God for growth, I pause and check myself before I say something that will be offensive or worse, something that I will regret later at some point. So often, we are so ready to blame someone else for their wrongdoing that we easily forget to check ourselves and see that we haven't produced good fruit to them either.
It doesn't cost you one penny to be kind to someone, daily. Opening a door to a mother struggling with younger kids. Or arriving early to work and starting the coffee pot for everyone in the office that day. When you are kind to others that same energy is returned back to you when you need it. Being kind is absolutely FREE so bear your good fruit more and be kind to others as you would want be done to you.
Now nobody signs up for bearing the fruit of longsuffering. As much as our pastors preach to us about the goodness that comes after the storms in our lives past, we'd still rather enjoy bearing the love, peace and joy fruits. Longsuffering according to the dictionary means, having or showing patience in spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people. This means forgiving someone who hurt you and not holding anything against them. Or when you don't see a way in sight to pay your bills on time but you still have joy in your heart knowing that God will provide all of your needs.
If you are not bearing good fruit in your everyday life, you are not in fellowship with God as the scripture stated above. If you don't know God, here is the perfect opportunity to get to know Him and began building a relationship with Him. Simply repeat these words from Roman 10:9 and you will be saved, "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is LORD," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
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