This follows on from ‘Does God Really Know Us?’…
I hadn’t planned my morning very well yesterday morning and I had missed breakfast. At around 10am I was feeling quite hungry. I knew my wife had packed me some fruit so I was looking forward to a nice, juicy apple or something. I reached into my lunch box to pick out an apple and… “Oh no! the apple is rotten!” Well, it wasn’t completely rotten. I was able to salvage quite a few bites out of it but I was really looking forward to a nice, juicy, ripe apple.
I remembered about Jesus, when He was hungry, and He walked over to a fig tree to grab some fruit…
Matthew 21:18-19
18 Early in the morning, as he (ie: Jesus) was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. NIV
In Luke Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree…
Luke 13:6-9
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree , planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'” NIV
Are you seeing where this is heading? In the physical, how disappointing it is when you are hungry and there is no fruit (or in my case, rotten fruit). OK, now in a Spiritual sense, how sad it is for God to see His children bearing NO FRUIT or BAD FRUIT!
Consider the grace of God that He would allow us to do the very things that grieve His heart all because He wants us to enjoy the freedom of a free will. He allows us to break His heart!
What comes to mind is the heart of God just before the flood (in Noah’s day). I think the following verses capture the grieving heart of God when our lives are centred on ourselves and there is no good fruit and lots of bad fruit coming from our lives.
Genesis 6:5-8
5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. NIV
And, finally, back at Matthew 7… (ie: if you have been following my blog)
Matthew 7:17-20
17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. NIV
When our hearts fall into line with God’s heart we will bear much good fruit and will be well on the journey of becoming good friends with God!
Father, by your Spirit, make your home within us that we can truly be your children of light and bear much good fruit to glorify you. Help us to take our eyes off ourselves and onto you, our creator and Heavenly Father and King, in Jesus Name, Amen!
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Praise God you like it!
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Steve