By their fruit you shall know them…
God totally called me out on this recently – and rightly so. It was a simple question that stopped me dead in my tracks. Here I am, working full time in the ministry – literally, I have the privilege that everything I work on is advancing His kingdom. It’s such an incredible honor. But this simple question left me speechless: ”Can others see that you are My child by looking at the fruit in your life?” And I knew what He meant by fruit. It was not my performance, or my lists of completed tasks or how much I could accomplish in one day – but what kind of spiritual fruit was my life producing? Whoa – I sat literally stunned for several minutes and all I could say was “Wow God, I’m so sorry.”
If I can be real for a second – I had somehow drifted into confusing fruit; gifts and works. I had kind of lumped everything into one big bucket and slapped the label “accomplishments” on it. That had become my focus – get stuff done, and since it was “stuff’ for the kingdom – I felt as if my life had much fruit to show for. In my personal development – I worked to develop the gifts and God-given talents on my life so that I could accomplish more – while all along confusing the end result with “fruit”. But what God calls fruit in His word – the fruit by which we are known as His children, I was not cultivating, and it was becoming less and less evident in my life.
The world is full of people who are gifted and smart and can get a lot of stuff done. The world is full of highly efficient people. How much I get done isn’t going to speak to a lost soul. But love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness – this is what speaks to a world in need. That’s where the authenticity is. That is what points the world to Jesus.
Spiritual gifts are easy to spot – but gifts are just that – gifts. They are given freely. And they are given to each of us so that we can help each other. (See I Corinthians 12:1-11) Fruit however is cultivated.
I am so glad that God is so patient, kind and gentle. What He pointed out to me was HUGE, yet He showed it to me in love and there was no condemnation or anxiety in it. That’s our God!
Lastly, He seals it all in my heart by taking me to Philippians 1:9, where I see clearly that the heart and the mind were intended to grow together. ”I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding….11 May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ – for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”
LGR
