Kingdom Commitment – Day Four: Produce Fruit

Faith in God does marvellous things.

One of them is that it assures you of a connection to gloriously generous Giver. He gives food and drink. He gives oxygen to breathe. He gives beauty to see. He gives opportunities to enjoy life. To truly make the most of all that He gives we look to Him by faith and …

Produce fruit.

In creation, God blessed humanity by telling them to be fruitful. When David wrote of the blessed man, his picture was of a tree planted by streams that produces fruit in its season. Jesus, in His final conversation with His followers before facing crucifixion instructed His disciples to be fruitful. Indeed Jesus spoke of how the relationship with Him allowed them to be fruitful and His Father would do what it takes to increase the fruitfulness.

It’s part of the wonderful things that happens because of faith.

Understandably, then, as God has given us so much to be fruitful, He expects us to produce fruit. Fruit that lasts.

We produce fruit in displaying the character God gives us by His Spirit. We produce fruit in the activities that reflects His desires for the earth. We produce fruit in exercising the gifts that He gives us to serve His Body and His world. We produce fruit in obedience to His call on our lives.

Some get excited about the tangible proof of the fruit – salvation, signs and wonders and so on. And rightly so. There is just as much, however, to rejoice over when we produce the fruit in suffering, produce the fruit in storms, produce the fruit in setbacks, produce fruit in trauma. That appears counter-intuitive. It makes sense in God’s economy. Faith in Him gives us the ability to endure and persevere. We mourn with those who mourn. We feel loss with those who grieve. Yet we do not lose heart. However faintly, we still hear God, we still know God is with us, by His Spirit.

Producing fruit is evident in our faithfulness to investing ourselves totally to His cause in pursuing righteousness in the home, in the workplace, in social settings as well as in the community of grace. Producing fruit is evident in applying skills and abilities to the best of the strength He gives us in every sphere of life.

That fruit is a reflection of the life of Christ in us. That life expressed has the opportunity for others to live in it and discover who Christ is for themselves. As they do that, then they too recognise just how awesome God is and how He is a gloriously generous Giver. And as He gives He looks for us to live by the Kingdom Commitment to produce fruit. As the Father rejoices in the fruit and others benefit from it, so we reaffirm that wonderful truth:

Faith in God does marvellous things.

(Photo by Oscar Ivan Esquivel Arteaga on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden