Where's the Fruit?

Fruit. The concept of fruit in our lives has been coming up quite a bit in my life these past few days, especially on Saturday. As I was reading through my daily Bible reading, I came across these verses at the beginning of  Psalm 1:

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”

Now, I have read these verses numerous times before, but the part that really jumped off the page to me this time was a phrase near the end of this passage where it says “which yields its fruit in season…”  The Lord really used this to encourage me because I felt like He was saying, “If you are not yielding fruit at this very moment in life/what you are doing doesn’t appear to yield any fruit; that does NOT necessarily mean that you are doing something wrong. After all, fruit trees are not continually producing fruit, but rather they go through different seasons. It could be that I have you in a season of preparation right now, and while you are on the right track, it does not mean that it is the right time for the fruit to be produced. Just as the trees and plants must wait until the time is right for their fruit to come forth, so it is with you.”

However, there is also a flip side of this. You (and I as well) could be tempted to take these words of encouragement as almost an excuse or cop-out for why we are not producing fruit, when I reality we are just being lazy. In John 15:1-5, Jesus says,

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

         
        So as Jesus’ disciples, if we are abiding in Him, then we should be bearing fruit (of some kind) because of our connection and relationship with Him. It may not be the fruit that you were expecting to bear or wanting to see come to fruition, but there should be fruit of some kind. After all, as I was discussing above about Psalm 1, the Lord may have us in a different season than we ourselves would like to be in, and He may have us producing a different fruit than we would like to be producing, but that does not mean that we should throw in the towel and give up. This is our chance to trust Him and to “take the adventure that has been given us.” Why? Because Jesus loves us and calls us His friends and then little bit later on in verse 16, He says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

       He is preparing us to bear fruit that will LAST. Let’s not give up just because we are not in the season that we would like to be. Instead, let us focus our attention and our love on Christ because as we do that and surrender our will to His, we will discover that He has placed in us a contentment that we did not think was possible. :-)  Even though it may be hard, His ways are always the best ways, and so that’s the way for me!