I have some beautiful orange trees. The blossoms are lovely, and the trees are just loaded down with fruit in the winter. But there’s a problem. We can’t eat the fruit. It’s not because I’m allergic. I absolutely love oranges. The problem is it is bad fruit. They are sour oranges, also known as bitter oranges. I’ve heard of people using them to actually make things. Maybe a weird version of lemonade but with sour oranges, or maybe using the peel in something. We’ve tried. But honestly, they are so bitter, that for a decade, they have just sat. Useless.
A decade has come and gone watching those beautiful trees. They really are lovely. My daughter said the other day it reminded her of life of a Floridian. She’s not wrong. But the problem is that she will never eat the fruit from those specific trees. If she did, she would immediately spit it out and her lips would probably sting.
I was staring at these trees the other day, pondering their uselessness and my love for tasty oranges. It made me think of the many verses in the Bible that talk about fruit and how we bear fruit.
Our daily actions are the fruit of the lives that we live from the inside out. What you are on the inside eventually comes out. Sometimes under pressure, it isn’t pretty. A lot of times under pressure, it isn’t pretty. 2020 was filled with pressure. In so many ways. What fruit was evident in your life this year?
I challenge you in these opening days of 2021, if you call yourself a believer and follower of Jesus, do some inventory of your fruit. Is the fruit of your life just something that looks good and other people assume it’s the real thing? Is it really just sour, bitter, useless oranges that aren’t really fruit that will actually benefit others and the Kingdom of God? If that’s you and you recognize your fruit needs to change, start from the inside. Take a look at your heart and know that your actions follow what is on the inside.
Luke 6:43-45
"For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
This year, choose what kind of fruit you want your tree to bear. Repent for what was in your life that doesn’t need to be there, and ask God to give you the strategy to transform the abundance of your heart. Don’t bear worthless fruit.
To bear good fruit, we have to abide in Jesus. He is our source and what cleanses us from the inside.
Jesus said in John 15:4-5,
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Abide in Jesus and bear good fruit this year.
Comments