The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self–control; against such things there is no law.”

—Galatians 5:22–23

Notice the fruit has nothing to do with tangible outcomes, rewards, or even how others respond to us. It has everything to do with what is being produced in and coming out of us.

Our society judges success by accomplishments, outcomes, and numbers. Unfortunately, the Christian community doesn’t seem immune to this. We think unless we can show the results of our work for God in numbers, with a product we’ve created, or by how many people respond, then we don’t have any “fruit.”

The truth is all those numbers, products, works, and responses will amount to absolutely nothing if they are not fueled by the love of Christ (1 Corinthians 13) and producing joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self–control through that love.

Rather than asking ourselves, “What have I done for God lately?”, we should ask, “What has God done in me lately? How is he growing and changing me? How am I allowing the mirror of the Word to show me areas I need to surrender to him?”

Our fruit cannot be measured by statistics of the good we’ve endeavored to do, though we may produce products and works and have great numbers and responses. Our call is to stay connected to the vine (John 15) and watch Christ produce fruit in us as we grow in love, obedience, and trust. If the fruit of the Spirit is expressed in our lives, then those around us will be nourished by our presence in ways we could never plan by strategy.

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