When David and I were first married, we owned a house in southern Michigan. It was an acre lot with a couple of apple trees on it. The first year, the fruit on those trees were not fit for human consumption. The apples were small and hard, mis shaped with blemishes. I told David I wanted to harvest the fruit from them so he researched care of apple trees and went to work pruning, fertilizing and caring for those tree. It took time but in a year or two we were harvesting bushes of apples.
The Christian life takes time and care too. Once we surrender to Him, God begins to shape us into the person He needs us to be in order to serve Him. God prunes us, cutting away the dead parts of our old life. We are fed by His word and mature by digging deeper and discovering what He wants to reveals to us. In due season, we produce fruit for Him.
It's not much different than those old apple trees.
Matthew 7:15-20
15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
Blessings, Cecilia
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