Are you bearing fruit or just leaves?
I have planted a garden almost every year I have lived at our current place on Whidbey Island. Some years it hasn't been too bad and other years I just wasted my time and the money spent on seed. One year it was coming up great when rabbits and deer got in and ate everything. This year I determined that it was going to be different. I read some place that often the soil gets acidic and that lime needs to be added to sweeten the soil. So I bought lime and spread it all over the garden. Then I bought five sacks of steer manure and spread that all around. My son, Mark, came and rototilled it all in for me. I was excited. I'm going to have a great garden, I thought. Then I read in a gardening book that you shouldn't put lime and manure in the soil in the same year, that it might harm the plants.
I was really bummed about that, but planted anyway. My garden came up very lush and green, better than in any year I have had it. So I thought the gardening book didn't know what it was talking about. But (and here it comes), the plants aren't producing much. Lots of stems and lush green leaves but not too much produce. Some, but not much.
In Mark 11:12 Jesus saw a fig tree in leaf. Normally when a fig tree is in leaf it has fruit. Jesus was hungry and went to see if had any fruit. There was nothing on the tree but leaves and Jesus cursed the tree. There's an old song that was written based on this portion of scripture:
The master is seeking a harvest
In lives He's redeemed by His blood.
He seeks for the fruit of the Spirit,
And works that will glorify God.
Nothing but leaves for the Master.
Oh, how his loving heart grieves.
When instead of the fruit he is seeking,
We offer him nothing but leaves.
As this song says, the Lord is looking for fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Gal. 5:22-23. Matt. 12:33 says a tree is recognized by its fruit. Jesus said that it is to his Father's glory that we bear much fruit, showing that we are his disciples. John 15:8.
Are we bearing the fruit that the Lord desires or do we just put on a show of being a Christian when we are around other people or at church, but at home we are not exhibiting patience, kindness and faithfulness. And what about gentleness and self-control with our parents, spouses or children? Are we all leaves and no fruit? How do we conduct ourselves in the work place? I pray that I might be recognized as a disciple of Jesus by the fruit that is borne in my life; not be a branch that bears no fruit and is cut off but a branch that He prunes so I will be even more fruitful. John 15:1-2.
Tomorrows Bible Reading - 1 Kings 12, Jeremiah 38, Mark 12
God is good all the time,
Naomi Brinkman
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