Healthy and Fruitful TREE

Kumar Vijjeswarapu

I believe many of you love fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers etc. They may become very special to you if you have grown them in your backyard or in your farm.  Sometimes you may even take a little bit of pride in them because they portray your hard work and care that you took towards that tree or a plant.  Well, for today’s topic, let us take a tree that bears fruit. When we plant a tree we expect it to grow and bear fruit. We try our best to keep the tree grow healthy so that it can bear good fruit in its due season. Isn’t it true that when we plant an Orange tree we expect nice and sweet oranges from that tree? If the tree is producing a different kind of fruit rather than its own, we think that there is something wrong with that tree. It is the same way in our spiritual walk too.  The Bible tells us in Luke 6:43-45 like this.  “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.  People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.  For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks”.  These beautiful scriptures form the Bible tells us how we should live and bear fruit. In the same way we identify a tree by its fruit, people around us also can identify us by what kind of life we are living for Christ. The Bible tells us in Mathew 7:1-23 “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘ I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ These are the words from the Bible.  Are we living the way we profess? Especially when we call ourselves as Christ followers, we should be very careful to see how we are producing our fruit.  Let us ask ourselves these questions. How am I living?  How is my fruit? Am I appearing like a good tree to the outside but not producing good fruit? Everyone around us may not know what kind of fruit we are nurturing in our hearts but God knows it and you know it.  Can we hide anything from God? The answer is NO. If we live in Christ and follow Him, we will be like a tree, which was mentioned in Psalm 1:3.  It says, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prosper.” I hope we live in this New Year like a tree that has its roots in Christ and bear much fruit for His glory. ______________________________________________________________________ Galatians 5:22-23  22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.