2Peter 1:5-8 ESV For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, (6) and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, (7) and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. (8) For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have a peach tree out back. It’s produced plump and juicy peaches before, however this past year it struggled to produce smaller, shriveled up peaches that weren’t much larger than the pit. If we want to see real fruit on the peach tree again we will need to do some work. We need to prune the tree, work around the roots and perhaps add some fertilizer.
The tree never really stopped being a peach tree. The environment and lack of maintenance caused it to produce shriveled fruit rather than large juicy peaches. Our faith works in the same way. We may have a saving faith in Jesus Christ, but for faith to be fruitful in our lives it needs to accompanied by character transformation. Actively trusting in the promises of God should produce these character attributes that lead to, or are a demonstration of, God’s love in our lives. We should be growing towards maturity. In the Christian life that means that the fruit of the Spirit is produced in our lives in greater and fuller quantities.
Father, thank you for faith. Thank you for the fruit/ evidence of the spirits work in our lives. I pray that we grow more fruitful in our following after you. I ask that you would see true growth in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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