A Tree and Its Fruit - AnnaKate Burleson
It's the last blog of the semester!! What?? It feels like this semester has lasted two days and forty years at the same time, but either way, it's weird to see it end. Thank you guys for making my first semester of college so full of laughter and growth. Now on to the blog post!
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but every diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits."
Matthew 7:15-20 gives us an important reminder to be in constant self-reflection. Jesus makes it really clear that the state of our inward being will be shown clearly through our words and actions. And while this passage is telling us that we can recognize other believers by the fruit they bear, or the choices that they make, it is important that we stop to reflect on what fruit we are bearing in our own lives.
I want you to stop for a moment and reflect. What type of metaphorical fruit are you producing? Is it the fruit of the spirit? When you speak, do you speak with love? Do you treat your waitress with patience even though she messed up your order more than once? Are your words those of kindness, those that are good for teaching and instruction? Or do you produce the fruit of the world? Do you speak harsh, thoughtless words to those around you? Do you just harbor ill will and judgemental thoughts against your peers, superiors, or even your family? Do you act out in anger, forgetting to be gentle and abandoning your self-control?
We are Christ's ambassadors. Our sole purpose in living is to point others to our Creator and our Savior. We cannot do this effectively if we aren't bearing the fruit. You heard it straight from the man Himself - Jesus says that those who bear bad fruit are false prophets. That's pretty heavy stuff. I hope that we take this portion of His Sermon on the Mount and apply it faithfully to our lives. We should live in such a way that we pay careful attention to what fruit we produce. After all, our words and actions reflect the character of our Savior.
I commented on Kayla and Moriah's.
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but every diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits."
Matthew 7:15-20 gives us an important reminder to be in constant self-reflection. Jesus makes it really clear that the state of our inward being will be shown clearly through our words and actions. And while this passage is telling us that we can recognize other believers by the fruit they bear, or the choices that they make, it is important that we stop to reflect on what fruit we are bearing in our own lives.
I want you to stop for a moment and reflect. What type of metaphorical fruit are you producing? Is it the fruit of the spirit? When you speak, do you speak with love? Do you treat your waitress with patience even though she messed up your order more than once? Are your words those of kindness, those that are good for teaching and instruction? Or do you produce the fruit of the world? Do you speak harsh, thoughtless words to those around you? Do you just harbor ill will and judgemental thoughts against your peers, superiors, or even your family? Do you act out in anger, forgetting to be gentle and abandoning your self-control?
We are Christ's ambassadors. Our sole purpose in living is to point others to our Creator and our Savior. We cannot do this effectively if we aren't bearing the fruit. You heard it straight from the man Himself - Jesus says that those who bear bad fruit are false prophets. That's pretty heavy stuff. I hope that we take this portion of His Sermon on the Mount and apply it faithfully to our lives. We should live in such a way that we pay careful attention to what fruit we produce. After all, our words and actions reflect the character of our Savior.
I commented on Kayla and Moriah's.
I kind of wrote about this in my blog post. I discussed in Romans about how we act certain ways and do certain things because we are Christians and we are supposed to reflect Jesus in what we do every day. Sometimes this can be very hard. Our natural reaction as a human is to counter act to someone when they have wronged us. Because we are humans and because we are all under the burden of sin. It is our nature. We have to make effort to live like Jesus and understand that we will fail. But through him our failure is covered by the blood.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is crucial for us to understand the impact of the fruits of the spirit, even at an early age. I worked with children my whole life and that was always my go to when talking about actions and discipline. We also set such an impactful impression on younger children and what they see us do and hear us say will be what they do and say. Be careful little ears what you hear.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with you AnnaKate. Self-reflection is key to self-growth and becoming a better person for ourselves and Christ. It is all too easy to get caught up in the day to day and not pay attention to how we treat others around us. If everyone tried just even one day to be more mindful of practicing patience and mercy our world would be unrecognizable.
ReplyDelete