Bearing Fruit

This time of the year is filled with opportunities to reflect on the blessings of bearing fruit as many cultures around the world celebrate some sort of Thanksgiving Day for their harvest in the fall season. Cultures that follow the lunar calendar celebrated their harvest a couple weeks ago, while our American friends will celebrate in November, and of course we celebrated our Thanksgiving Day recently as well.

Many cultures have a tradition of giving thanks for their harvest because they recognize that there are factors that are outside of our control that determine the quality and quantity of the fruit we bear. The bible claims that God helps us with the harvest of our lives in both figurative and literal ways.

In Matthew 13:8, Jesus uses a parable to teach about seeds that fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He later explains to his disciples that there are forces in life such as the evil one, struggles, and temptations that will hinder you from producing beautiful fruit in life, but when you understand and obey God's word, it's like seeds that fell on good soil—you bear bountiful fruit. It is only by understanding and obeying God's word that you can truly bear beautiful fruit in life, like the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

God desires to help you bear such fruit, but you cannot do it without his help. A farmer needs wisdom and hard work to expect a plentiful harvest, but he also needs the sun, rain, and other things that are outside of his own ability to provide. Likewise, a tremendous harvest of good fruit requires God's provisions that he supplies through his word.

- as seen in The Delta Optimist