Work the Fruit!

♪♫•✫♥✞♥♪*•♫♪♥ Back in the mid-80s when I was in my thirties, the Lord started giving me new songs and has continued through the years, sometimes three in a day or week, sometimes months without one, but without fail, when I NEED a new song…when something is going on in my life to where I need to keep singing…He always gives me one to help me deal with whatever’s going on.

Many are all about working through some problem I’m having, and He’s about making me look more like Jesus. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” II Corinthians 3:18  Oh, I’ve just seen a whole new perspective on that scripture in my life. It’s because His Word is living! I love His Word!

So Phillipians 1:6 tells us “being confident of this, that He who began a good
work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  I believe He refers to Father God, and it’s my choice to capitalize even the pronouns referring to my awesome Creator. It is not capitalized in the King James Version which is my Bible of choice and the source of all scriptures I quote. That ‘good work’ referred to, in my humble opinion, is changing me into the image of His Son. I believe it began when I was nine years old and received Yeshua as my Ha Mashiach (in Greek – Jesus the Messiah). That’s when He saved my soul.

But through my life, I admit I have struggled with walking in ‘the fruit of His Spirit’ as Galatians 5:22-23 tells us is “…love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  Some are easier than others, right? Some, with His help and continuing grace, I believe I’m able to walk in, firmly…they’ve become a part of me, who I am. Because of His ‘work’ in me.


One of the most recent songs He gave me is a little chorus I call FRUIT OF YOUR SPIRIT. It goes:

      ♪♫•✫♥✞ ♪♫•✫♥✞♥♪*•♫♪♥  

Work the fruit of Your Spirit in me,
      cause me to be…
            longsuffering, Lord.
Work the fruit of Your Spirit in me,
fill me with Your peace, joy, and love.

Because I want to be like Jesus!
Full of goodness and kindness and grace.
Teach me, Lord, some self-control,
So that I can look into Your face 
            And.  Know.  That....

                You have worked Your Spirit in me
                You have caused me to be
                            longsuffering, Lord.
                You have worked Your Spirit in me,
                You have filled me with Your                                       peace, joy, and love.

                                    Because I want to be like Jesus!
                                    Faithful and true, that's what I want to do.
                                    So others can see Jesus in me,  
                                    Help me to be always like You 
                                    And.  Your.  Son....

♪♫•✫♥✞ ♪♫•✫♥✞♥♪*•♫♪♥  

        If only I was techie enough to sing it on a URL that you could go to and hear the tune, then you could sing it, too, when you have trouble being longsuffering or find it difficult to exhibit self-control like I do. It is His job, and I know I’ve not made it easy...as much as I love Him.
        I hate the repeated situations He lets me get into just to have the opportunity to react like Christ would. Sometimes I pass the test, oft I do not, but the sweet part, the part overflowing with His everlasting, never-ending love and mercy, is that He promises one day, I will get there.
        And as I now find it easy to walk in love, be joyful, and remain at peace…as I without difficulty daily practice faithfulness, goodness and kindness, I will be able to control myself no matter what the circumstances. I will be thoroughly longsuffering no matter what. I know this is true. He promised.

The moral of the story: Keep trying, Don't worry, Be Happy!

Simon & Schuster, Christian hybrid author, Caryl McAdoo is currently writing  three series: her historical Christian Texas Romances; the contemporary Red River Romances; and The Generations,her Biblical fiction. The novelist loves singing new songs the Lord gives her, and she paints. In 2008, she and her high school sweetheart-husband Ron moved from the DFW area—home for fifty-five years—to the woods of Red River County. Caryl counts four children and fourteen grandsugars life’s biggest blessings believing all good things come from God. Praying her story gives God glory, she hopes each one will also minister His love, mercy, and grace to its readers. Caryl and Ron live in Clarksville, the county seat, in the far northeast corner of the Lone Star State.