You can tell if a fruit tree is good or bad by its fruit. If a tree makes delicious, healthy fruit, that’s a good tree! But it’s a bad tree if it makes bad fruit. The Bible tells us to “bear good fruit,” or to make good fruit. But it’s not talking about growing a peach off your cheek, or anything like that. Your actions and behaviors are the “fruit” of your life. The Bible says that we should have the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. The Fruit of the Spirit is: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. Whether or not a tree bears good fruit has everything to do with where it’s planted, and where it gets its nutrients.
Douglas’ family recently moved, and their new place has a HUGE backyard. In one corner of the backyard, the previous owners of the house had left all kinds of garbage and dumped nasty chemicals, but there was a mulberry tree growing in that corner of the yard, too. Normally, mulberry trees make really yummy berries that you can pick and eat right off the tree, but not this one. Douglas’ dad told him and his brother Stephen that they were NOT to eat anything from that tree. That mulberry tree had been pulling all the nastiness out of the ground where it was planted and put it into its fruit, so that even though the berries looked good, they were really very bad, even deadly.
If we live our lives only based on whatever we happen to feel like doing, we call that “living according to the flesh”; but if we live our lives the way God wants us to, we call that “living according to the Spirit.” If we want to have the Fruit of the Spirit, then we need to be rooted in Jesus Christ.
“Rooted in Christ” Bible Verses:
- Colossians 2:6-7 | Rooted in Christ
- Galatians 5:22-23 | Fruit of the Spirit
- Matthew 7:15-20 | Tree and it’s fruit
- Luke 6:43-45 | Good tree, good fruit
- Psalm 1:3 | Like a tree planted by the water
“Rooted in Christ” Family Time Questions:
• What does it mean to “bear good fruit”
• What are some of the fruits of the Spirit?
• What must we do to bear good fruit?
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for your goodness to me. Please help me to stay rooted firmly in you, like a tree planted by the water. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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