preservation – Pursuing Prayer

Poor Fruitcake– the butt of dozens of Christmas jokes. Someone once said that there were 20 Fruitcakes produced in France in 1541– and they are all still in circulation today! I know a few people who like fruitcake, but most people just make fun of it. Technically, it IS a cake, but it is mostly made up of fruit and nuts soaked in rum or brandy or candied for preservation. Fruitcakes can be mailed, shipped, and saved for months without rotting, but the fruits never taste fresh, and much of their flavor is overwhelmed by the sugars used to preserve them. Fruitcake is heavy, and sweet. It is full of things that are “good for you,” but the end result is not very healthful.

I was reading the other day in Galatians, and a couple of days later in Philippians– two passages that speak of Christians producing fruit. Our lives are to be characterized by virtues and acts of service that bring health and healing, joy and peace to those around us. And these virtues are the products of our Faith in Action– of The Holy Spirit working in and through us.

²²But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control; and here there is no conflict with Jewish laws.
Galatians 5:22-23 (Living Bible–emphasis added)

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
Phillipians 1:9-11 (The Message–emphasis added)

“Fruit of the Spirit” is not something we can manufacture ourselves. Only God’s Spirit at work IN us can produce such fruit. And, while it is Fruit that will last, it doesn’t need to be dried or candied or soaked for preservation. Unlike the fruit in Fruitcake, the Fruit of the Spirit is eternally fresh and bursting with life and flavor. There is nothing wrong or evil about Holiday Fruitcake. But it cannot compare with fresh fruit for wholesomeness and healthfulness.

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Sometimes, we try to manufacture our own “Fruit of the Spirit.” And this can be far worse than a harmless but calorie-laden Holiday Fruitcake. Even those who are opposed to Christ can manufacture a certain amount of Joy, or Patience, or Self-Control. Anyone can appear Gentle or Kind when they choose. But, separated from the source of life and growth, we cannot produce fresh fruit. Our Joy may be soaked in Rum. Our Patience may dry up. Our Kindness may be candy-sweet, but hiding malicious or selfish motives. Or we may surround our fruit with worldly “wisdom,” disguising and transforming it with cake and nuts.

Photo by Tobias Bju00f8rkli on Pexels.com

This holiday season, let’s not become dried out or artificially sweetened in our acts of service and Love. Let’s be producers of Godly Fruit– Love that reaches out to the Lost, the lonely, and the “unlovable” with true love and not just sentimentality; Joy that bubbles up from a thankful heart and a transformed mind; Peace that transcends our current trials and circumstances; Patience that endures hardship without losing hope; Kindness that wraps itself around the unworthy and never tires; Goodness that knows no conceit and seeks no credit; Faithfulness that inspires and produces hope in a faithless world; Gentleness that smooths over troubled waters without being overcome; and a rock-solid Self-Control and steadiness that produces trust– not in our own power or wisdom, but in the One who produces it in our lives. We should be humble and grateful, teachable, and ready to forgive, encourage, and pray for others.

Don’t be a Fruitcake this Christmas– be a Fruit Basket instead!

⁴But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew, ⁵to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons. ⁶And because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father.
Galatians 4:4-6 (Living Bible)

I went to the local farmer’s market the other day. All the “in season” veggies and fruits were on display– peaches, zucchini, sweet corn, some late raspberries, onions, tomatoes, various flowers, peppers, summer squash, pickles, and more! This is the season that we seem to be almost drowning in certain veggies– tomatoes and zucchini seem to top the list–and something needs to be done with them all. Canning, freezing, making jams and jellies, and baking double batches of zucchini bread, making salsa…it is a busy time.

It got me thinking about God’s timing. Sometimes, we might question– why does it seem that so many veggies all ripen at the same time? And yet–I enjoyed blueberries back in July; asparagus earlier in the year, and I’m waiting for apples and pumpkins to ripen later in the fall. God has made every good thing in its own season. There is a “just right” time for each veggie and fruit. And even in times when we might feel overwhelmed by the produce of one season, we have an incredible variety of other produce to fill out the year. And the abundance now, properly preserved, will carry us through the long days of winter.

God created seasons– and not just for fruits and vegetables. We go through seasons of life– childhood, becoming an adult, parenting, empty-nesting, aging– and each season has its own “fruit” of growing, learning, and changing. But God lives outside of human time– His “seasons” include the rise and fall of empires, and the wide and sweeping changes of the centuries.

So when God talks about Christ coming at “the right time,” we can be assured that God knew precisely, exactly when the time was “right” for that series of events. Christ will return at precisely, exactly the “right” time in God’s plan. Just like a flower that seems to take forever to bud, and then seems to open up overnight; so God’s plan seems mysterious to us on this side of time. Our perspective is so narrow that we tend to see only a small part of the whole picture.

This is true in our personal seasons as well. “When will I be older so I can…?” “When will I find the time to…?” “Where did the time go…?” And yet, everything comes according to God’s plan at the “right” time. This can be a comforting thought, in the midst of confusing circumstances. The same God who waited for the “right” time to enter human history controls all the “times” of my life. What ripens in my life– relationships, opportunities, even tragedies–comes at the exact moment the God has decided. Never a moment “too soon” or a nanosecond “too late.” While I may not understand or be prepared for events or circumstances, God is NEVER taken by surprise or shaken by “unexpected” harvests.

My job in going to the farm market is not to choose which fruits, vegetables, or flowers will be available. My job is to choose which ones I will purchase and use from what is already there. My job in going through life is not to control my circumstances and their timing, but to use God’s wisdom and provision to keep going, growing, and producing His “fruit” along the way!

I need to keep this in mind as I pray each day. God wants to listen to my heart– all my joys and all my concerns. But He already knows the end from the beginning. My job is to take it all to Him, and then trust Him (AND His timing) as I travel on. Everything will ripen in its season.

Tag: preservation

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