I Want To Be a Pear

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Romans 8:11

I love to read cookbooks and will spend time perusing them. As I read a recipe I have the ability to taste it. Believe me, that is, much kinder to my waistline than gobbling down the actual described dish.

An interesting tidbit I recently gleaned from a cookbook stated that pears ripen from the inside outward. 

Now, isn’t that just like the work of the Holy Spirit who indwells all of us believers in Christ Jesus? HE ripens us from the inside out.

Some words in my Roget’s Thesaurus for the word “ripe” are: enlighten, enrich, fit, informed, in readiness, maturing, perfecting, and usable. Those sound like part of the Holy Spirits’ ministries in believers. The Holy Spirit helps us bear fruit---His Fruit of the Spirit.

But, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galations 5:22-23).

What would our day, week, month, or year be like if we “co-operate” with the Holy Spirit’s ripening us from the inside out? Then we could be used by Him to scatter pieces of sweet, ripe Fruit of the Spirit all around us to a sour, bitter, unwholesome, unpleasant, world.

Yeah, I want to be a pear!

Claudia Jackson