Do
you ever wonder how farmers get fruit off their trees, like apples, peaches,
and cherries? No, they don’t climb up a
ladder and pick them J.
Instead, many farmers, especially the larger ones, have what is called a
tree shaker. It is a large motorized
piece of equipment that grabs a hold of the trunk or branches of a tree and
then shakes the tree until the fruit begins to fall to the ground where it can
be easily collected.
How do you respond when you are shaken
by difficulties and challenges that come into your life? What fruit becomes exposed in your life? Do you worry, fear, and get stressed? Do you run to the things of this world for
comfort and escape? Do you blame others,
even God, for your situation, and become bitter and angry?
2 Corinthians 13:5 says “Examine
and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your
faith and showing the proper fruits of
it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize
and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in
you—unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected? (AMP)
When difficulties and challenges come
(and they will), watch and evaluate what fruit appears in your life. Is it the fruit of the spirit mentioned in Galatians
5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) or is
it the opposite of such fruit?
As we have discussed previously, the
fruit in our life is directly related to what thoughts we choose to fill our
hearts and minds with. As Christians, the WORD (Jesus) dwells in us, and we
have access to God’s inspired written word.
What a privilege! But, in order
for good, healthy fruit to appear in our life, we must allow the “roots” of our
life to get their nourishment from Jesus and scripture.
If the wrong fruit falls from your life
when you are shaken, don’t get discouraged, but make a renewed commitment to
empty yourself of the world’s philosophy and fill your mind with God’s
powerful, life changing word. When you
do that, good fruit will appear and the people around you will be drawn to
learn more about your Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment