fruit, but not the forbidden kind

here

    Sorry for the delay, friends.  This weekend I visited some of my favorite people (and a couple awesome ones that I haven't seen in a while) and had a lot of fun.  I learned that I am absolutely terrible at laser tag and that Russell Brand is a hilarious hottie. It's a shame that he's so vulgar and married to Katy Perry or I'm sure that we would be an item.

I went to church with my friend B this morning where I had the chance to listen to J.D. Greear speak.  If you aren't a Christian or live under a rock, J.D. is somewhat of a Christian celeb. For realsies.

He even has a Wiki page.

This morning, he talked a little about spiritual fruit. If you don't know, spiritual fruits are character traits that Christians should have.  If you are a healthy Christian, you will see these traits emerge in your life.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  
Galatians 5:22-23

But how do we get these traits? Honestly, I just try really, really hard to be patient or to have self-control, or to be joyful.  

Have you ever tried to force yourself to feel joyful?  If you haven't, don't waste your time.  It doesn't work.

This morning, J.D. cast it in a different light.  Having "spiritual fruit" is a result of life [in Christ], not our own work.  I don't have to force myself  to be nice to people or to feel at peace, I only have to focus on Jesus and those things will come naturally.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last...

John 15:16

B and I both became believers around the same time, and it was so cool to look back and see how the Holy Spirit has worked on us in every single one of those "fruitful" areas in the last two years. I could probably write a blog post about how I have grown in every one of those categories. The message today challenged me to stop trying so hard, and focus my heart on Jesus. Only then can I be the most effective Christian possible.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these...

John 14:12

I'm amazing to see the ways that I've grown as a believer, but I'd be even more encouraged to hear what's happened to you! If you want to pick a "fruit" [love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control] and write a post about how God changed you in that area, I'll post it on here!

Email it to me at jaclynsbrowning{at}gmail{dot}com!

I'm for real. I want to hear them.

little j

p.s. I'm sorry about the format. I'd like to blame it on Blogger being a super big you-know-what, but it's probably more my own incompetence.