Tag Archives: Fruit

What to Do?

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Being faithful is not about what we do.  It’s about who we are.  It’s about how we are planted. It’s about where the roots are.

CS Lewis once said “No man nows how very evil he is until he has tried very hard to be good.”  There’s a lot of truth to that statement.  All of us that follow Christ want to be good. We want to do right. We want to grow. We want to be faithful. We want to see good things happen.

And, so, we try to be good.

And, we find ourselves failing. We find ourselves falling. We find that it’s not working.

So, we try harder.

And it still doesn’t work.

What do we do?

Today, Jesus tells us the one thing that we must do.  Listen to what Jesus says in John 15:

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!

It’s not about what we do. It’s about who we are.  He is the vine. We are the branches.  Our job, our task, it is to stay rooted in Him.  If we stay in Him, He is in us, and He does the work.

He bares the fruit.  He grows us.  He produces fruit.  He makes it all possible.

It’s not about what we “do.”  It’s about who we “are.”  He IS the vine.  We ARE the  branches.

What are we do to?  Stay faithful. Stay close to Him.  Remain in Him.

And, if we remain in Him, He will bear fruit in us.  That’s what vines do.  That’s what we do.  Stay in Him.  He will bare fruit in you.

Worthy Fruit

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This morning as I was reading today’s readings, the words of John the Baptist, in Matthew’s readings stood out.  He is confronting the Pharisees and Sadducees as they come to him.  He says:

8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

This got me to thinking about fruit worthy of repentance. What is that?  What does that mean?  

I imagine the fruit being talked about here is the Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc. But, that was not what really got me to thinking this morning.

How do you bare that fruit?  How is the fruit produced?

To get more personal, how will I make sure that I bare that fruit?  What must I do today, and each day, to make sure that I am barely fruit worth of repentance?

So, I thought, how do produce fruit?  I’ve found that for me, the way my life is fruitful for God is when I am walking closely with God. When I am praying, reading, listening, seeking God, I find that I produce the fruit of joy and peace and love and mercy.

But, when I am not. When I’m too busy. When I don’t seek. When I get bogged down in my schedule. When I turn my attention to what I have to do; what is next, it is in those times I am not patient and kind and loving.

The fruit in my life is worthy when I am walking with the Lord as I ought. When I turn away, towards myself and my stuff, my fruit is not as it ought to be.

So, for me, I have to make myself slow down.  Pray.  Breathe.  Listen.

Today, no matter how busy you are.  No matter what your schedule is, you can take a few moments every so often to stop.  Breathe.  Pray.  Listen.  You don’t have to pray for 30 minutes.  But, you can stop.

And, if for nothing else, become aware to the reality that God is there with you, even then.

In short, I think the key to producing worthy fruit is to live with that awareness that God is there with us. Every moment.

Even now.