Bearing good fruits...

We will conclude our series on "Fruits of the Spirit" by reminding us the importance of bearing fruits. Taking an inventory of ourselves we may notice, we have some fruits well developed in us, some fruits may be in budding stage & some fruits are nowhere to be seen.

Jesus once 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. 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?’
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’" Luke 13:6-9

Just as in the parable above, Jesus is pleading our case to the Father everyday: "Leave her/him alone for one more year; I’ll dig around him/her and fertilize him/her. If he/she bears fruit next year, fine!" I hope we will live up to His expectation.

* Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves.  Matthew 21:19
* Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Isaiah 5:2

Let us all analyze our hearts to see if our life resembles the fruitless fig tree or the bad grapes vine as in the verses above. If it does, it is time to work on the F R U I T S!

He went to look for fruit on it

"A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 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?’

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” Luke 13:6-9

Yesterday we had discussed the parable of a sower and today again, we have a parable: The parable of a fig tree. It doesn't take an expert to understand these parables. These were simple stories which any common man could relate to. Also, these parables were preached by Jesus Himself which make it even more interesting.

Here we see, a fig tree master getting disappointed with no yield from his tree and in his anger wants it cut down. But the gardener pleads for the tree and buys some more time. Do you think the gardener then just left the tree to itself? No; he took special care to prune it, trim it, feed it and water it more often. He toiled hard to make it live. Let's pause right there.

Don't you see a similarity of Christ our Savior pleading our case to the Father God here? Yes, that is correct. Every time we anger Holy God who cannot look at sin, and whenever He is ready to punish us according to our sins, Jesus Christ comes in between asking God to give us another chance. Then He takes special care of us, giving us more and more opportunities to improve. Do we appreciate His efforts and try to make it or do we neglect it and remain the same without much fruits in our lives? Hope we improved!

Let's ponder over these thoughts as we kick off the weekend...