The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.
Proverbs 11:30
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
Proverbs 11 is concerned with the kind of life that lasts. The verses invite us to notice what shapes a faithful life: honesty, humility, generosity, and trust. Together, they hold up a quiet contrast between lives driven by self-interest and lives formed by faithfulness, gently turning us away from what promises quick reward and toward the longer, steadier work of God.
In the middle of the passage comes this quiet promise: the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. Proverbs does not urge us to become righteous here. It assumes righteousness has already been given and then shows us what flows from it. A life rooted in God bears fruit that gives life beyond itself.
Throughout Scripture, righteousness is not something we achieve. It is received as a gift, grounded in God’s covenant faithfulness and fulfilled in Christ. We are made right with God not by our wisdom, but by God’s grace. From that gift, a certain kind of life slowly begins to take shape.
The image Proverbs offers is not hurried. A tree of life grows steadily. It offers shade simply by remaining where it has been planted. Its fruit appears in season. In the same way, the life that flows from righteousness is often quiet and ordinary, becoming visible over time in the way we show up in the world around us.
For us, this wisdom is revealed in Christ, who is himself the tree of life given for the world. United to him, we are not asked to manufacture fruit, but to live from the righteousness we have already received. The Spirit faithfully tends that life within us.
This does not mean the life God grows in us is effortless. Remaining rooted in Christ often requires letting go of what promises quick return: control, recognition, certainty, and trusting God in ways that feel slower and more costly. Yet this is the very soil in which true life takes root.
So, we do not leave this passage with something to prove or produce. We leave it trusting that the life God has given in Christ will bear fruit in its own time, and that God is faithful to the work already underway.
For Reflection
- Where do you notice signs of steady, quiet growth in your life right now, even if it feels unfinished?
- What does it look like for you to live from righteousness received, rather than striving to prove yourself?
- Who might be experiencing God’s life through you in small or ordinary ways?
Prayer
Gracious God,
You are the source of all life and the giver of righteousness.
We thank You that our standing with You rests in Your grace,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
By Your Spirit, tend the life You are growing within us.
Shape us into people whose presence gives life to others,
in ways seen and unseen.
We trust You with this work,
and we rest in Your faithfulness.
In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
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Devotionals