If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5b
During 2026, Peachtree Church is inviting everyone into Cultivate, a churchwide discipleship plan centered on the fruit of the Spirit and the kind of life God longs to grow in us. Throughout the year, we’ll explore how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control take shape in everyday life through the Spirit’s work. Cultivate brings together worship, Scripture, group guides, and meaningful practices designed to meet you where you are and support growth in ways that fit your season. These twice-weekly devotionals are one way to stay connected, offering reflection and grounding for daily life with God. Whether you engage in many ways or just one, you’re invited to be part of this shared journey of becoming more rooted in who God has created and called you to be.
Devotional
What motivates my actions? If I try to do something out of my own pride, what do I end up with? A spectacle or a silliness of vanity. If I try to do something out of my own anger, what do I end up with? A sound and fury signifying nothing (thank you, Shakespeare and Faulkner.) If I try to do something out of my own despair, what do I end up with? Sorrow and emptiness. Death, really.
But if I do something connected to Jesus, what do I end up with? Good fruit. Maybe it’s a word kindly spoken, an impulse to do wrong controlled, a time when I made peace in a group where there was none, only anger and discord. The fruit might be Love where there was coldness, Joy where there was despair. If I act out of my connection to Jesus, he flows through me into the world, and I can’t anticipate all the good that may come to pass.
In Brooklyn, NY, where two of our children and their spouses live together in one three-story row house, they have a neighbor named Thomas. He’s in his 60s, German-born, and he’s a chef at a nearby restaurant. He has taken his corner lot and gotten the most possible out of it. He has planted fig, peach, and apple trees, in beds and in big planters. In summer, he has herbs, vegetables, tomatoes, and flowers for the table. He tends the linden trees in the median in front of his house, which are flourishing. (And woe be to the Con Ed men who came by and mangled them up to fit under the power lines.) He has also given fig seedlings to all the neighbors that will accept them, and their house has one, right in the bed that runs beside the front steps. He prunes it at the right time, feeds it, and watches over it. That one man has made his corner beautiful, productive, and lush. Even if his house were sold and he moved away, his trees would remain, giving shade, food, cheer, and beauty.
In the same way, if we remain connected to Jesus, who fills our life with the chance to bear good fruit, we will make a mark on our world that will last well beyond us. But apart from him, we can do nothing.
For Reflection
- What motivates my day in and day out actions? My work, my relationships, my finances, my hobbies, my pleasures: what spirit is behind them?
- Is it the Lord who is moving behind my life?
- What fruit is my life bearing?
- If I notice a lot of dead ends and wasted effort in my life, what might be going on there?
- What good fruit would I like to bear that isn’t happening now?
Prayer
Dear Lord, in some places in my life, I can see that I am connected to you, and you’ve enabled me to offer you and my world good fruit. But some parts of my life are cut off from you. I have allowed that to happen. Lord, flood me and my life with your own life and grace, run through my words, actions, relationships, and my failures and refresh them! I want to be connected deeply to you so that my life can bless others and bring you joy. In Christ’s name, Amen!
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Devotionals