The other day I read a quote by Aaron Smith that has run in my mind ever since.. “the fruit is for others, not the tree.” The fruit we bear as we abide in Christ isn’t really for us. It’s for others. Others who are hungry and in need of something we ourselves received from Fellowshipping with Jesus.

We are to be good stewards of all God has given. Sharing our physical goods, yes. But even more we ought to share the wisdom, the comfort, the hope, the salvation and every good thing the Lord has worked into us and has given us in the inward man. He hasn’t done it for us to keep to ourselves but that we might take the things we’ve received and share it with those around us.

I want to awake each day looking for hungry people in need of the fruit the Lord has produced in me, His branch. No longer looking for fruit to keep on my branch where it will rot away if kept too long. But offering it when it’s ripe for picking, that it will nourish all those who receive it.

How often do we think the fruit is for us, so that we no longer have to be burdened by the old man who is so unlike Christ. Or how often do we think that the fruit is born from our efforts as we call our good works fruit? But fruit truly comes from no effort of our own. Just by abiding. Fruit comes from the change that Jesus produces in our new man as we bear our cross. Then we, having first partaken of the crop, yielding our heart to the will of our Father in heaven, can now offer that seed bearing fruit to others.

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:48

Let us abide in Christ that the fruits of His righteousness might change our heart and then be offered unto multitudes. When walk past the down trodden mom in the parking lot or the homeless man who endlessly pushes his cart to and fro, encounter anxious neighbors etc. we will have fruits to offer them. Little pieces of Jesus, who is pure love.

“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal 5) Abiding and bearing our cross are really the same thing. What did Jesus do and what did He say? “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 6:38 & “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13. He counted it joy and great love to lay aside His life for the sake of others. Bearing our cross, abiding in Christ and choosing God’s will means dying to self, that we might walk in the new man who delights in the will of God. It’s easier to chose the will of our flesh nature everyday. But for the honor of our God’s name and for the love of OTHERS, we must chose that narrow road if we are to be of use to our God. As His bondservants, that is exactly what we are called to do!

Like Esau and Jacob, our old and new man are at war with each other. Yet we are commanded by Christ to pick up our cross and follow Him. In order to have something of value to offer others in the Kingdom of God, it requires losing our life as we have always known it, so we might truly find it. It requires selling all we have so that we might buy that field with the treasure in it. Having done so, it prepares the way of the Lord. Sets straight our crooked paths. It provides room for Jesus, who dwells in our new man given at our rebirth, to rule and reign in our moral body. Then he will, through our yielded vessels, walk this earth and bless all in and around us.

Let us press on toward the upward call of God. Let us be good stewards and faithful bondservants. Though it isn’t always easy, let us count all we have as loss, that we may gain the only treasure we can find while on this earth, Jesus the Christ. He alone is our salvation from death and from every evil thing that weighs us down. Thanks be to God who gives us a new nature when we respond to the beckoning of the Holy Spirt, who convicts us of our sin that separates us from God which causes us all our misery and sorrow. Let’s praise Him for He doesn’t leave us hopeless. Rather, he recreates us that we might know His way and delight in following Him in it. Amen!