Do you remember the song about the Fruit of the Spirit which is based on Galatians 5?
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
It's a lovely list! Thinking of each of these actions as fruit is an interesting head-spin. When you think of fruit you think of something that grows, and when it's ripe you eat and are nourished by it. When I consider being loving, or being patient, I think it ought to be of more benefit for others than for myself - but that is not the case - to foster the fruit of the Spirit nourishes you as well as others.
But fruit aren't always available. They grow in seasons. I can imagine that a season for love, for patience, or for kindness could be in situations that are easy, where you get along with everyone around you. In contrast, out of season could be those situations that are challenging - where you are pressured on every side, where you have conflict and stress. However, Jesus tells us otherwise, when we love those who love us it doesn't show that we have grown our fruit to maturity (Luke 6:32-36). Instead we are to love and do good to those who hate us, just like He did. That is what helps our fruit to grow.
My husband's family loves plants and knows the best way to tend to them. They once told me that certain plants actually grow better in stressful environments. Perhaps the fruit of the Spirit follows this rule of thumb. Unfortunately, it is a hard thing to love out of season. We need God's help.
Here are two examples related to fig trees.
In Mark (Mark 11:12-25) Jesus looks for figs on a fig tree when it is out of season and curses the tree when no fruit was found on it - the tree then withers and dies. I feel like we can be that tree. We don't show the fruit of the Spirit when we are 'out of season'. We react negatively to negative situations. We aren't allowing our fruit to grow to maturity and we are not open to the Lord's leading.
In Luke 13 Jesus tells another parable of a fig tree where the tree doesn't even provide fruit IN season for three years. But in this case, the farmer gives the tree another chance and tends to it for one more year. When you look at the context surrounding this parable, Jesus was speaking about the fact that all of us are sinful and need to repent, the act of repentance allows us to be ready to grow fruit. This parable doesn't tell us whether the fig tree did produce fruit the next year, but I hope for our sakes that it did!
Are you in a good position to grow fruit of the Spirit? Have you repented and are humbly ready to let the Lord prune out those parts of you that aren't fruitful?
If the Lord wanted fruit from you 'out of season', would He find any?
