Matthew 7:20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruits, so you can identify people by their actions.
My Thoughts
I once worked with a man that talked all the time about being a Christian. When I met him I was impressed by his talk. Then the more I was around him the more I realized that all he was was talk. He was unkind and unfair to his employees. He denied people breaks they were suppose to have, he lied. He jeopardized every employee by not taking care of his duties as manager. He even stole from the store. The store was in danger of closing when he got there...his actions were the final nail in the coffin of the store, the doors did shut and many, many people lost their jobs. This man not only effected the people in the store he also effected their families and his family. His mouth said that he was a Christian, his actions said that he wasn't. The fruit of his spirit was not love.
When we become Christians God puts the Holy Spirit inside us... making us able to grow the fruits of the spirit where are fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5: 22-23). We should be able to see these fruits in our lives.
This man I knew talked about being a Christian was not producing these kinds of fruits at all.
When we find that the fruit that we are producing is not loving and caring..when we find ourselves not being kind..when our lives don't produce goodness..and we feel no joy or peace..... we need to step back and examine our actions. Ask God to show us where our actions are coming from. Sometimes God will show us that we are not walking in love ourselves...sometimes God may show us that someone else is not walking in love and it is effecting us... our answer may be to remove ourselves from a situation that is causing changes in our hearts... we may need to put ourselves back on fertile ground where love can grow where the fruits of the spirit abound.... Either way once we find ourselves not producing fruits of love something in our hearts has changed... it is a caution that we need to refocus... talk with God and get back to a place where we produce the good things that God intended for us to have. We all have out moments...where something wrong gets grafted into our trees... when that happens we need to prune our tree so we only grow in goodness.
It is our duty to take care that our tree grows the fruits of the spirit..we are to be diligent (1 Timothy 4:15) to make sure that our lives reflect our hearts...as Christians our hearts are made for love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control and forbearance. When we go to God and say something had grafted the wrong fruit on my tree... God will gently prune our tree and make it right again. Our part is to make time to notice what is amiss and to go to God for help.
No comments:
Post a Comment