My paternal grandfather had what I would consider a “green thumb”.  He could grow anything and he could grow anything in places that others said it wouldn’t grow there.  I asked him one day how he was able to produce such amazing results in difficult climate and he said “I don’t produce anything; I take what God has given and put it where it should be”.  He took some seed and placed it into the tilled ground.  He then said, “my responsibility is to tend to the needs of what God has given me, to water, to weed or to prune but God is the one who gives the fruit”. 

Jesus told us in John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing”. 

As a follower of Jesus, I can easily find myself trying to produce things that I am not capable of producing in and of myself.  So many times, we struggle to “produce” a Christian lifestyle and we fail to realize that it is only as we remain in Him that He is able to produce through us the fruit that He has placed in us by His Holy Spirit.

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

These things called the fruit of the Spirit cannot be produced without Him.  I certainly can’t produce them out of my own self.  You might see one here or there but there isn’t any consistency.  We must learn to “live in the Spirit” and also “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25).  We accomplish this by staying connected to Jesus through a life style of the Word and Prayer.  There is no other way.  It is the only way to stay connected to Him.  Trust Him to produce in you as you tend the things He has given you.

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, help me to stay connected to You.  Produce in me and through me all that You have placed within me by Your Holy Spirit.  In Jesus Name.  Amen.