Q.
My question is very scary for me. I truly believe in the Lord Jesus and have as far as I know my own heart, have surrendered my entire life to Him out of Love and gratitude to Him for all He has done for me. But I have been reading about the fruit of abiding in Him and to be very honest, I just don’t see a lot of any of them being manifested in my life consistently. I spend quiet time with Him in His word in the mornings and pray diligently that He would use my life for His purpose and glory, but having much patience, agape love, kindness, gentleness is just not that obvious. Why is that?
Nancy
A.
Hello Nancy,
Thank you for your question and your honesty. I’m sure all seeking souls have at times felt the same way. Two thoughts come to mind.
First, let’s address a right understanding of what abiding is and how it operates. Abiding is the picturesque word for faith—dependence on Christ, the vine (John 15:4-5). When we abide in Christ, He abides in us. When there is faith there is grace because God-dependence accesses Spirit-enablement. When this is so and Christ is abiding in us, the fruit of His Spirit is manifested.
But abiding is not once for all; it must be continuously applied or, we might say, repeated. Walking by faith conveys the repeated steps of faith/abiding. It is a matter of trusting to obey. New triggers throughout a day challenge the abiding position. In the moments of continued trust, He enables. In moments of self-will and self-dependence we cease accessing Christ in us. Throughout a day we may vacillate between abiding and not abiding, but we can ask ahead of time that the Spirit help us remember to abide in the moment of need. The Spirit will check our spirit. If we mind the check, we continue with the life of the vine.
Second, we really aren’t the ones who see the fruit as much as those around us. When Moses’ face shone, he was unaware of it. Others saw the glow. Similarly, others see the fruit of Jesus in our lives though we may not be that aware of it. So, there may be more fruit in your life than you realize.
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