One of the things I love about Bible Journaling is doing word studies and finding all the Scriptures in the Bible that speak about a particular topic. When I started playing with the new Fruit of the Spirit stamp set I looked up 'fruit' in a Bible app and looked up relevant Scriptures. One that I really wanted to illustrate was found in a prayer recorded in Colossians 1:9-12. It is such an amazingly rich prayer to pray over ourselves and others:
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
The part about bearing fruit in every good work really caught my attention as something that I desire, as well as need to understand more.
When I've heard about bearing fruit in good works in the past I've always thought about it in terms of output and productivity, i.e. results. I'm sure that this can be one aspect of bearing fruit in the kingdom of God, but as I was journaling this page I began to think of the fruit of the Spirit, and how maybe this is the type of fruit this Scripture is talking about. You see, it is all too easy to be doing 'good works' for the kingdom of God, but not be displaying kindness, gentleness, peace and patience. We can be serving, giving, preaching and praying, whether on Sunday or during the week, and not be walking in love, joy or self-control. And I wonder: is this 'fruitless' good work what God requires of us? I don't think so. Yes, God uses broken and imperfect people in His service (if He didn't no one would be doing anything!), but I believe that as we serve, He desires for us to grow in bearing the fruit of His Spirit. We should not be content with just doing things for God when He wants us to be changing from the inside out so that we end up being different in the process. This is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit though, which is why it requires prayer! And this prayer is a great place to start.
On this page I tried out the 'no line watercolour' technique using these cute fruit images from Fruit of the Spirit. I stamped them using Versamagic Wheat ink, which is a pale beige colour, then I watercoloured over the images using an aqua brush and Prima watercolours. As the paints are applied, the stamped image disappears under the colour and it looks like freehand watercolour. This is such a fun and effective technique, particularly for people who don't feel confident in creating their own watercolour artwork from scratch! Here's a couple of close-ups of the fruit so you can see the detail:
I also used the new Chunky Lowercase Alpha for a couple of words on this page, along with with alphabet stickers from my stash.
I pray this prayer for myself as well as all of you:
Lord may we walk in a manner worthy of you, fully pleasing to you, bearing the fruit of your Holy Spirit in every good work and increasing in our knowledge of you. Amen.
x Amy x
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