In a message that I gave several months ago from The Sermon On The Mount, I talked about bearing good fruit. I gave an example of a tangelo tree from my back yard that produced what it was supposed to produce compared to a plumb tree in my yard that had not produced any fruit in the four years we have lived in our house. I have been tempted to cut the thing down because in the fall, it drops leaves in my pool. I had decided to give it one more year to produce some fruit just to make sure I gave it a fair chance.
As you can see, this year it did produce plumbs; probably around 50 of them. More recent research has taught me that it takes a few years before a plumb tree actually produces fruit. So my tree came through for me! The only problem is now the tree is messier than ever. But I think I'll keep it just because it is doing what it was created to do.
I am so glad that God gave me a few years to start producing fruit. I grew up in the church. I could speak the language and act the part but the truth is, I didn't produce fruit for a really long time. God must have seen the potential for fruit in me because his grace has allowed me to discover who I am really to be in His kingdom.
We never want to use God's grace as an excuse to be lazy, but if you haven't started producing fruit in your lives know that God is patiently waiting for it to happen. He created you to bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23)
God also calls us to be patient with the people around us. When they don't produce the kind fruit you think is spiritual fruit, instead of cursing them, cutting them down or trying to uproot them, try fertilizing and caring for them. You might be surprised how quickly the fruit comes.
