God Expects Fruit From His People
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. -- John 15:16-17
What does fruit look like? Obviously, I’m not talking about apples and oranges here. I’m not even talking about the fruit of the Spirit, as wonderful as that is. The fruit I’m referring to is what you produce to signify that you are grafted into God’s family through the blood of Jesus Christ.
While good deeds -- or fruit -- don’t save us, they come from our faith. Just as we would expect an apple tree to produce apples and a fig tree to produce figs, God expects His children to produce fruit that can be called good deeds.
So many of us wait for the “grand gesture” or the “big moment.” We tell ourselves we’ll give a million dollars to feed the hungry -- when we win the lottery. Or we’ll volunteer with the youth -- when we have the time. Or we’ll visit the elderly -- when we retire. Most of us always intend to do good at some later date -- a date that rarely ever materializes.
What about today? Maybe you don’t have a million dollars lying around, but could you buy someone a tank of gas? Could you collect food for the local food bank? Could you offer a kind word to someone having a bad day?
A local radio station encourages people to do what the station terms the “drive-thru difference.” It encourages people to print a note off the station’s website and keep it in their vehicle. Then, when they’re going through the drive-thru, they’re to pay for the person behind them and leave the note for the cashier to give to that person explaining why.
It’s like paying it forward. You do something good for someone. It touches them and motivates them to do something good for someone else. And on and on it goes. We are sometimes a hard and calloused people. When a stranger does something nice, just because they can, it makes people feel blessed and cared for.
Kindness. Compassion. Sensitivity to the people around us. God doesn’t expect us to do more than we are able. But He does expect us to do what we can, where we can.
So be kind to someone who is having a bad day. Recognize someone other people tend to ignore. If God places someone in your path, reach out and touch them with your heart. There are so many hurting people in this world, so many who feel alone and forgotten. How will they ever know how much God loves them if we don’t reach out and
