Sunflowers

A few days ago, the hubs and I decided it was time to delve into those Fruits of the Spirit verses.  We’d been pondering them for a while and have been doing some brief discussing of them.  However, as we began to read the verses, we had to backtrack to the ones before which in many forms tells us all the things that are not of the Spirit.  And let me tell you, there are a lot of them!  Suffice it to say that we shall be in this passage for a while!

Today as I was mowing, I came around the side of the house.  It took a few times for me to stop concentrating on all of the grass and to check out my scenery.  Imagine my delight and surprise as when I was making a round on the side yard to see a glimpse of yellow.  Hurriedly, I plowed down the patch in front of me as I anxiously made my way back to the little garden of sunflowers we had planted a month or so ago.  Yes:  there it was!  A glimpse of bright yellow, almost orange caught my eye!

“Oh thank You, Lord!” my heart sang and I couldn’t wait to make the next lap.  You see, we’d been watching these plants grow rapidly these past two weeks and wondered when their flowers would open.  Today was the day--well, at least for two of them.

Not quite sure if sunflowers were indeed a fruit, I checked to see and the explanation given was that the seeds are a fruit of the sunflower.  Okay, that works for me and for the blog today.  Just as it is often hard to tell if a work done by a soul is from Christ or from the flesh, sunflower seeds can get a bum rap.  Some say they are a fruit while others will tell you they aren’t.  I mean, after all, aren’t humans basically good, kind, loving, and peaceable?  Don’t we strive to be gentle, patient, and practice self-control?  What makes these "fruits” any different than those that are revealed, that are evident when we become children of God?

I think it’s the faith.  For without faith it is impossible to please God.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Even the most rotten of us can exhibit kind characteristics, right?  However, when we are doing them supernaturally as an offshoot of the Vine to Which we cling?  Ahh, that’s the difference, my friends, don’t you think?  When we do them in response to the ways of the world in order to please God and to not further our own agendas?  That is when I believe we are most fruity!

Let’s pray!

Dear Lord, as this study continues to show me different aspects of You, I ask that You help me to develop these traits supernaturally and take away all of my flesh.  Too often I get caught up in trying to do the right thing but sometimes...sometimes, Lord, my motives are questionable.  Well-intentioned, surely, but perhaps not eternally based.

Thank You for my sunflowers!  I am excited to see that patch slowly open and share its brilliance with my neighborhood.  May I too bloom brightly so that others may see You in me is my prayer.  In the name of Jesus:  amen.