May 8, 2020 BEARING FRUIT
John 15:8 “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Colossians 1:10 “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.”
Everyone is producing fruit, but the question is what kind of fruit is being produced and will it last. When God created man in His own image, He put within man the desire to be productive-just as He Himself is productive. Along the way, many have listened to the lie that leads one to see ‘work’ in a negative light; that work robs us of the freedom to do what we want to do. The question is what is the fruit that we are to be bearing and how do we go about bearing the fruit that God has in mind. I am sure most of us have looked back over a certain time period of our lives and are dismayed when we see no lasting good fruit of all our busyness. As believers, we are blessed to be able to be about bearing good fruit and fruit that remains. In fact, everything we do can be an aspect of bearing good fruit. We can be like the tree that bears good fruit-not through its own effort but just because of how God made it, it bears fruit. Out of our relationship with our Father and out of living according to His design, we naturally bear good fruit. Our relationship with our Father is active and on-going; coming to know God as our Savior and Father was not the end, but the beginning. A major concept for us to know and understand is that we are to work with God as He works in us; in other words, we anticipate His working in us and we gladly choose to follow His leading. Some define their activities as either ‘spiritual’ or ‘secular,’ but to do is a mistake and is in contradiction to scriptures. The good news for us is that all we do can have the stamp of being a good work or a work that bears good fruit. Colossians 3:23 instructs us: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men.” Proverbs 3:6 tells us “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” The beauty of this is that all we do has value if it is done as unto the Lord; even what appears to us to be a menial task or mundane takes on new meaning when we do it as unto Him. The awesome truth is that both the CEO of a large corporation and the one that washes the dishes glorifies God when they perform their duties ‘as unto the Lord.’ No matter our plight in life, no matter our circumstances, we will experience blessings from the Lord when we have the mindset that we will be about bearing fruit that glorifies Him and doing all we do as unto Him. As we do, we will be ‘walking in a manner worthy of the Lord’ and ‘will be fully pleasing to Him’ and ‘will be bearing good fruit.’ And, you might call it a secondary blessing, but as we go about bearing fruit as unto Him, we increase in the knowledge of God!
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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