August 10

“We need not trouble ourselves about our fruit-bearing....we can no more have real spiritual life within us without bearing fruit than the oak tree can have life without bearing acorns.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 8/10

The other part of this law is that the tree must receive what it needs in order to produce its fruit.  If it doesn’t have the nutrients and water, the sun and a season of rest, it will not bear fruit.  Then there’s disease and storms that affect its growth.  The tree is totally dependent on “mother nature”.  Man may intervene from time to time and rescue the tree from its poor conditions, supplying it with fertilizer and water, pruning it’s branches, and spraying for disease.  This is a good picture of our relationship with God.  We are totally dependent on His care in order that we may bear the fruit He has deemed.  He has given us all that we need and continues to nurture us, but earthly cares may come.  If we are dependent on God He can then provide someone to come along side us and give the help we need in time of crisis.  He will use people to nurture us, which will help us set fruit.  Ultimately, everything is in God’s Hands.  If we would realize this we would not waste energy and sometimes even make ourselves sick by trying to “hang” fruit on our trees.  The only true fruit is that which is the result of God’s work in our lives.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields it fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.”  Psalm 1:1-3