Tag Archives: bearing fruit

Purposefully Planted

I grew up having watermelon seed spitting contests with my friends. These days you have to look hard to find a watermelon with seeds in it. There’s a lot of seedless fruit these days in the produce section. While it’s convenient to eat, I can’t help but think about we’ve learned to circumvent God’s process for growth and reproduction. Seedless fruits are created through processes where fertilization occurs, but the seeds to reproduce the fruit don’t mature. It produces fruit that’s easy to consume, but lacks generational continuance.

I love the story of the woman at the well in John 4. Jesus asked her for a drink to open the conversation and then let her know that He had living water to satisfy her spiritual thirst. Verses 28-30 say, “Then the woman left her water jar, and went into the city and began telling the people, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done! Can this be the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)?” So the people left the city and were coming to Him” (AMP). Once she experienced salvation, she ran into the city spreading seeds about Jesus. The people came out to the well and believed in Jesus as well.

In John 15:16 Jesus said, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting.” You have been planted right where you are to plant seeds and bear fruit that remains. God isn’t looking for superficial results from your life where it’s busy with activity but doesn’t plant seeds in others. When we fail to share our faith, we’re just like a seedless watermelon. He’s purposefully planted you so you can multiply the kingdom the way the woman at the well did.

Photo by shri on Unsplash

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Remain In Christ

One of the Scriptures that has always stood out to me is Romans 11:17. It says, “But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree” (NLT). I’m no gardener, but the idea of being grafted in has always intrigued me. To be grafted in means we had a clean cut from our old life, we’ve been tightly bound to a new source and we receive nourishment from the new root. The continuous flow of sap from the new source is what helps us bear fruit. 

In John 15:5 Jesus said plainly, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” The Greek word for “remain” is meno which means to live in a constant, uninterrupted state. Jesus was telling us that a life with Him is not a place we visit one or twice a week, but a place where we live constantly if we want to bear fruit. He went on in this chapter to tell us to remain rooted in His Word (7), to remain in His love (9) and to obey His commands (10j so we can bear much fruit. We can’t bear fruit unless we live in a constant, uninterrupted state connected to Him.

What kind of fruit should you bear in your life as a result of this grafting? Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law” (AMP). Notice that fruit isn’t a reflection of our efforts, but of His presence within us that comes from remaining in Him. Your life will bear the fruit of the root and tree that you’re connected to because they are your source. Where are you drawing your daily life from? Are you remaining in His presence daily? When we remain in Him, we will bear fruit in every season of life. 

Photo by Josie Weiss on Unsplash.

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Doing Good Deeds

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