Necessary Fruit Analysis

"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." John 15:6

"You will know them by their fruits..." Matthew 7:16 a

Often times the portion of Matthew 7:16 comes to me mind, both directed at me and others. Every once and awhile someone I know professes their faith in God, and yes, I start to analysis their fruit. In Matthew 7, Jesus is warning people to beware of false prophets. It's this chapter that we get the saying, "wolf in sheep's clothing" from, because they exist. So often we are told not to judge; people pull out the "judge not, that you be not judged" verse as their weapon of choice, which is the first verse of this chapter in Matthew. Please read, carefully, the entire chapter to see that you aren't told not to judge at all!

Sorry, I digress! Jesus goes on in Matthew 7 to talk about the fruit, how you can't get bad fruit from a good tree. So I wonder about the fruit that others produce. Is it good? Can I tell if they are really part of the Vine or do I suspect that they are just claiming branch-hood. Then I wonder if the lack of fruit I might see is actually one of those branches in their lives that needs to be pruned. Let's face it, we all have things in our lives, branches. that need pruning.

The verse from John is not about pruning though. It is about branch removal. If we produce no fruit that is evidence that we abide in Him, then we are cut off and thrown into the fire. God gives us many chance, Just check out the lives of those He called faithful and you'll see he gave them many! Yet there comes a point where one's not abiding in Him results in separation from God. Once the branch is burned it doesn't become a branch again. You can be pruned and produce even better fruit, but you can't be cut off and produce any.

 I wonder if there is anything that I do or say that shows fruit from abiding in Him more than not. I am definitely in that "needs-some-pruning" group. I wonder if others see too much bruised fruit in my life. I want people to know me by good fruit. Too often I get caught up in me and produce selfish fruit. That is one negative fruit I am know I produce. Mind you, God has pruned some of it away, I hope more is pruned than not, but I know some is still there. I don't want people to see selfish fruit when they look at me and my life. I want the to see fruit that is evident that I am part of the Vine.

We are part of the they in Matthew 7. We need to look at our own fruit to make sure that what is being produced is evidence of abiding in Him and not evidence of being a sheep in wolf's clothing. This makes me want to abide more deeply. I want to be known by the fruit of God.

Abiding in the Vine

"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." John 15:4

Do you ever feel dull, bland, um fruitless? I do! There are times when I just have such a blah feeling about myself, a bored feeling. I'm not talking about self-esteem, but rather that I'm producing anything of value. It's almost always a surprise to me when I get in that state, that I'm even like that. Then I start to think, "when was the last time I spent any real time in the Word or in prayer?"

I don't know about anybody else, but there are too many times when I just go through the motions of reading the Bible. There are times when my prayers are nothing more than a "thank you for the day" and "I would like....". Then there are also those times when I have to stop and think about when was the last time I even read my Bible or prayed sincerely. Honestly, these times come far too often.

Yet, the fruitless feelings that I experience are unpleasant, they are good because they remind me that I need to abide in Him. They draw my back to the Word and back into prayer. This happened recently, and as I opened my Bible I found myself staring down at the words of John 15. Honestly, I  haven't been able to move on to chapter 16 yet. I keep rereading the words of John 15, especially this section about the branches and the vine. God is trying to speak something into me through this chapter, something deeper than the obviousness of the words.

Let God draw you to His Word, to a particular section. Let Him speak something deep inside of you based and abide in Him there. He has different words for each of us, and words for us in different seasons of our lives. Abide in Him and find out what Word He is developing in you, what Word He is revealing to you, what Word He is equipping you through. Be the branch that abides in Him.