Forgive, Grow And Find God's Path for You预览

Growing and Bearing Fruit

When a person follows God and his Word, he or she enters a growth process that is very much like the organic workings of a planted tree. For us, the streams of water are like the ingredients of life that God provides to help us: his grace, which fuels and sustains us; and his truth, which gives us wisdom and structure. God designed us to take in and experience these good gifts. As we do, our leaves will not wither, meaning that our life will not dry up and be empty. The end result of all this is that God will bear fruit in us in the right season. Our fruit might be relationships that are flourishing because we have lived out God’s ways in them; or a career or passion in which we are expressing our talents and producing outcomes that benefit the world; or healing from an emotional or relational hurt.

To a large extent, we can judge by these fruits how well the process of being planted in God’s ingredients is going. If the fruit is not coming forth, there may be some problem with the tree; that is, something inside us is not taking in or responding to the ingredients. Then we have to look at ourselves and the process of growth and discover what might be breaking down. It could be that we are isolated from God or others, or that we are in need of some helpful wisdom or truth (cut off from God’s streams of water). We must look at ourselves as the tree to understand the nature of our fruit: “Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17).