Daily Devotional For Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Jesus said many things that stand out to me. One of them is His statement found in Matthew 7:20, “You will know them by their fruits” (CSB). In this passage Jesus was talking about false teachers/prophets. Yet the opposite is true also. People should know we are His by our fruit. Just like we can tell an apple tree is an apple tree by looking at its fruit or a pear or peach tree by its fruit, so people should be able to look at us and say, “There is a disciple of Jesus Christ.” In the Bible, it talks about the “Fruit of the Spirit” – fruit that only the Holy Spirit can produce in us. Look at Galatians 5:22-23, Fruit such as “The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” (NLT).
Look at 1 Corinthians 12:1,” Now concerning spiritual gifts:brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware” (CSB). And like the Apostle Paul, I don’t want you to be uninformed. There is a difference between the “Gifts of the Spirit” and the “Fruit of the Spirit.” Fruit of the Spirit work on our character and Gifts of the Spirit prepare us for our calling or ministry. The Gifts of the Spirit can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. Pastor and author John Ortberg tells the story about a woman who utilized both in a ministry:
“There was a front-page article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a metro-transit operator named Linda Wilson-Allen. She loves the people who ride her bus, learns their names, and waits for them if they're late and then make up the time later on her route. A woman in her eighties named Ivy had some heavy grocery bags and was struggling with them. So Linda got out of her bus driver's seat to carry Ivy's grocery bags onto the bus. Now Ivy lets other buses pass her stop so she can ride on Linda's bus.
Linda saw a woman named Tanya in a bus shelter. She could tell Tanya was new to the area and she was lost. It was almost Thanksgiving, so Linda said to Tanya, "You're out here all by yourself. You don't know anybody. Come on over for Thanksgiving and kick it with me and the kids." Now they're friends. Linda has built such a little community of blessing on that bus that passengers offer Linda the use of their vacation homes. They bring her potted plants and floral bouquets. When people found out she likes to wear scarves to accessorize her uniforms, they started giving them as presents to Linda.
Think about what a thankless task driving a bus can look like in our world: cranky passengers, engine breakdowns, traffic jams, gum on the seats. You ask yourself, How does she have this attitude? "Her mood is set at 2:30 A.M. when she gets down on her knees to pray for 30 minutes," the Chronicle states. "'There is a lot to talk about with the Lord,' says Wilson-Allen, a member of Glad Tidings Church in Hayward."
When she gets to the end of her line, she always says, "That's all. I love you. Take care." Have you ever had a bus driver tell you, "I love you"? People wonder, Where can I find the Kingdom of God? I will tell you where. You can find it on the #45 bus riding through San Francisco. People wonder, Where can I find the church? I will tell you. Behind the wheel of a metro transit vehicle” (Source: John Ortberg, All the Places To Go, pp. 70-72).
What an amazing story and an amazing lady. Being a Metro bus driver is probably not one of the most wanted careers but this lady uses her career to impact people for Jesus Christ, which she starts at 2:30 AM during her personal daily prayer time. By some measures, the church in Corinth was spiritually vibrant. They spoke in tongues. They prophesied. They prayed for the sick. But Paul knew that the evidence of spiritual maturity is not the demonstration of supernatural things. Instead, it’s Christ-followers growing up in the Lord and being salt and light. It’s overcoming evil and seeing the name of Jesus lifted up.
Those things were not happening in the Corinthian church to the degree Paul thought they should, so he felt compelled to say, “Don’t point to all your spiritual activity. I can see that the fruit of your lives is not good.” We’ve been gathering in our buildings and singing our choruses and listening to sermons. But because we haven’t taken our faith outside the church walls and put it to use, the fruit of our lives has been virtually non-existent. Let’s not be content to show our faith to each other. Let’s go into the world and put our faith to work.
Questions To Answer
- Every disciple of Jesus Christ is supposed to have The Fruit of the Spirit and every disciple of Jesus Christ is supposed to utilize the Fruit of the Spirit in and through the Gifts of the Spirit. In what ways do you merge both in your ministry?
- You and I cannot produce what is called The Fruit of the Spirit – only the Holy Spirit can do that. Have you ever found yourself trying to produce the Fruit of the Spirit? How did that go and what did you learn from that?
- What can you learn from the metro-transit bus driver named Linda Wilson-Allen above? What impresses you about what she does for people? In what ways can you emulate what she does for the glory of Jesus Christ?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Corinthians 14:1, “ Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: Heavenly Father, I invite Your Holy Spirit to help Your Word come alive within me in far greater ways. Help me to cooperate with Your truth more than I ever have so I might produce more good fruit than ever before through the spiritual gifts you have given me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly