A Fruitful Life Journaling Devotional

A 45-Day Journey through the Fruit of the Spirit

Yahaira Ramos

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781087747088
• eBook ISBN:
  9781087747095
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Fruitfulness—how would you define it?
 
A big family?
An abundant ministry?
An overflowing bank account?  
 
While there are certainly aspects of life that can be fruitful on the outside, the Bible elevates God’s most fruitful work in our lives as something that He does on the inside. Through his Spirit, God makes us fruitful from the inside out, cultivating the famous fruit of Galatians 6:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
 
In this beautiful 45-day journaling devotional, Yahaira Ramos (author and founder of Fruitful Girl) explores each fruit of the Spirit that God is bearing in you, right here and right now. No matter what life might look like for you in this season, take heart in knowing that God is doing a work in and through you—a fruitful work.

Week

1

God’s Love for Us

LOVE // Day 1

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 (niv)

We all know that love is so important in this life. But did you know that love is also one of the most vital subjects in the Bible? We know this because love is mentioned more than 500 times in Scripture! It’s not a coincidence that in the famous “fruit of the Spirit” passage, Galatians 5:22–23, love is the first thing listed. Why, you might wonder? Because all the fruit a Christian bears in this life flows from love. It is the greatest of them all, and it makes all of them possible.

God has shown up in my life—and in your life too, I’m sure. Do you remember how you came to Him? I sure do. I was around nine years old when a family member I had never met searched for my family. She was a distant relative, and my parents had no contact. I don’t believe she knew that my mother was having a hard time in her marriage, and my father’s addictions were taking all the faith she could muster. I don’t think she knew that a nine-year-old had seen it all—things she never should have seen as a child—and was also hurting from everything she had experienced in her own family.

But God knew. God knew what I had seen and what my family was going through. So He did what Romans 5:8 tells us about God: He didn’t merely feel love for my family, He demonstrated that love by sending someone to us to help in a time of need.

When I met this family member, she was different. She was loving and had a way of talking to you, with so much intention, love, patience, and kindness. At first, in my confused nine-year-old mind, I thought she was being fake, and I judged her. I had never experienced something like that from a total stranger, and I didn’t know how to interpret such light, given how much darkness I was walking through. Like walking out of a movie theater in broad daylight after being in the dark for hours, I winced and recoiled from the light in her at first. But eventually I saw she was reflecting God’s love. And I wanted what she had. I wanted God’s love that radiated in her life to radiate in my own life from then on.

My first experience of love from a total stranger was the love that I needed. God’s love was near, and I liked it. Over time, this family member took the time to share the gospel with my mother, and the impact she made in my life hit an all-time high. God’s love spoke to me loud and clear. At my young age, I learned that Christ died for me and all the sin in the world. And I didn’t just learn this as if it were facts listed in a textbook. I knew it was more personal than that. I could feel, deep down, in a personal way that apart from God, I wasn’t a good kid. Somehow I knew I had sin that needed dealing with—this was a pain I could feel in my bones. And this family member helped me learn that Christ could be the one to deal with it.

After the gospel was shared with her, I got to witness my mom give her life to Christ, right in front of me. And her decision impacted me for a lifetime. I did the same two weeks later. I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And all that pain over my sin that I had been carrying—it was gone.

For the first time, I didn’t just know about the love God had for the world. I felt the love He had for me, and God took away the burdens I carried. He hadn’t just sent a family member to show me He loved me; He had also sent someone greater—His only Son—to show me His love.

That’s what God does. He demonstrates His love. And that love searched me, found me, and made me new. It did not change my problems at home, but it prepared me for what I would face in my future. At nine years old, I learned that He had died for me before my existence. I knew that His love lived in me, and I finally understood the root of real love.

The true source of love is God, demonstrated in His Son’s death. Christ came for us out of love, and the Father’s love was the seed. His plan to give us righteousness and salvation through Christ was motivated by love. Without His plan of love to rescue us, we wouldn’t have salvation. Only God Himself could pay the price to save us.

Isn’t that good news today? Love starts with God because He loved us first. He loved you before you loved Him. He has given Himself to you. And that makes all the difference when it comes to bearing the fruit of love in our own lives. We can’t bear any fruit of love toward others until we understand just how much He loves us. Will you trust in that love today?

Prayer: Lord, You are the dealer and the definition of love. Your love is active, pure, kind, intentional, marvelous, and demonstrated for us clearly on the cross. There is no one like You, and we are thankful for the love You give us because it is comforting and it casts out our fear. Jesus, thank You for pouring out Your own life for us while we were still sinners, hurting in our darkest moments. Thank You for making a way to seek and find us when we had no hope. Father, like You sent Your Son, send us into the lives of others, and let us be a vessel that connects people to Your great love and Your gospel. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Reflection Questions

What does love mean to you?

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Who or what do you love most in life? Why?

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How does today’s verse change the way you view love?

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Put in your own words how God has demonstrated His love for you.

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Week

1

Loving God

Love // Day 2

We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19 (niv)

What’s the greatest commandment in the whole Bible? If you’ve ever read through the Gospels, you know Jesus’s answer: to love God not just a little, but with all we’ve got (Matt. 22:37).

Okay. We’re supposed to love God with every fiber of our being. But do you ever wonder how? Especially on days when we don’t feel warm and fuzzy toward God? How are we supposed to muster up this love for the Lord?

Through the years, I have had to learn and re-learn and re-learn again that, as 1 John 4:19 tells us, God loved me first! As we learned yesterday, God demonstrated His love by sending His own Son to die in my place and give me new life. He did all of that on my behalf before I was even born. He. Loved. Me. First! And you know what? He loves you first too.

Isn’t this a hard concept to understand as the years go by? When I came to Christ as a little girl, I believed in God’s unconditional love. God loved me, and that was that! But something happened as I got older and entered my teens and my twenties—it got harder to believe. Time after time, I would fall short of His grace when things got hard, and I’d feel far away from Him. I’d doubt that His love could meet me in this place. But over and over, He would remind me that He knows me better than anybody, that He knew my mistakes, and that His love could reach even here.

Do you ever find yourself amazed by this? God just keeps on loving us. He keeps showing up to help us along. Oftentimes, I ask myself why? And how is this possible? I am not worthy of His love—none of us are. But then I remember the gospel: through Christ, God sees us differently than we see ourselves. He sees things we can’t see. Instead of seeing us as totally compromised by sin, He now sees us as “wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14 niv). Instead of seeing us as enemies, He sees us as children. Instead of seeing us as deserving of His judgment, He sees us as receptacles of His love. He gazes on us with the same favor He bestows on His own Son! Ultimately, because of Jesus’s work on the cross and declaration that “it is finished,” the way God sees us is a complete us, not broken, but made right in Christ.

The idea of God loving us first is just the beginning of His mercy and grace toward us. He didn’t just love us before we loved Him. He knew us before we knew Him. He knows everything about us and still loves us. He knows the darkest places in our lives, hearts, and minds, and yet He still loves us—it is mind-blowing!

So how do we love God with all we’ve got? We accept that we are sinful and need His love, and then we receive His gift of life. And then, on the days we forget we’ve received such an extravagant love, we let Him remind us of it. By doing these things, we love Him back—it is just that simple.

And where can we find these remin...

Table of contents

• Titlepage
• copyright-page
• Dedication
• Introduction
• How to Use this Devotional and What to Expect
• Week 1: Love
• Week 2: Joy
• Week 3: Peace
• Week 4: Patience
• Week 5: Kindness
• Week 6: Goodness
• Week 7: Faithfulness
• Week 8: Gentleness
• Week 9: Self-Control
• Notes
• Acknowledgments