Wax Fruit
…your faith is devoid of truth and is
fruitless…
I Cor.15:14 (AMP)
• Artificial . . .
• Replica. . .
• Imitation. . .
Don’t eat that! It’s wax. With all
the new scientific discoveries and advancements, it makes one question what’s
real and what’s fake. Did she grow it, or did she buy it? Can he, or can’t he? Hmmm!
On
the other hand, the fruit of the Spirit is not as easy to mimic. It’s listed in
Galatians 5:22-23 as: love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, meekness, and temperance. This is our Christian trademark,
our branding. It’s the first thing people see, and take note of about us.
A
few writings ago I touched on wax fruit. This week I would like to explore
this topic more because it’s so important. I
define someone as having spiritual wax fruit when they are not authentic in
their Christian walk. They say they are Christian, but godly characteristics are
missing. I’m beginning to see that the quality of our fruit is a guide to show
us, and everybody else, if we are genuine or not. It says in Matthew 7:15-20
that we will know them by their fruit.
If
we’re not paying attention, our fruit can accumulate a hard waxy build up. We
can tell when this happens when we start to notice that we’re not as kind or
generous as we once were. Or, we begin to notice that an unforgiving heart has replaced
one of love. It takes a first-class, topnotch anxiety attack to put our peace, temperance, and longsuffering fruit to
the test. Can it sustain the pressure? Will pressure cause it to break
open showing that it’s hollow—void of any godly substance?
To make sure our fruit stays supple under
pressure, we have to stay in the presence of the “Son.” Wax will collect if we
don’t. However, wax will melt off in the Son. For instance, I don’t think it’s
possible to live a life around all that “Love” and keep a waxy cold heart.
If the heart remains cold, something is not
right. Because the more we are in Jesus’ presence, meaning the more we model
our lives after Him, the more we will become like Him, and God is Love.
©
2014
See You Next Week on Paulette Talks Faith.
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