Fruitful for Him

We sometimes have a banana quandary here. They either don’t last too long or last too long! If I buy them [somewhat] green, we can’t eat them right away; if I buy them ready-to-eat, no one seems to want a banana. The “last too long” ones usually end up in someone’s banana bread, and that solves that problem!

Fruitfulness unto God is often a dilemma. What joy to be fruitful to God’s glory, and see others being useful to the LORD. Trouble comes, however, when Believers become proud and begin to see themselves as the source of their own fruit! Ezekiel wrote, ““Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest?” (15:2). In layman’s terms, don’t get your cart before the horse! Except for God’s mercy, we’d get exactly what we deserve. Except for God’s grace, we’d never get that which we do not deserve -- His salvation for our souls! Spurgeon puts it plainly, “Great believer, thou wouldst have been a great sinner if God had not made thee to differ.” God’s compassion for man made things different for those who call upon His Name. Ezekiel’s words make us stop in our tracks, call us down from our high-horse of pride, and humble us before our Redeemer. Fruit off-the-vine will always become precarious, like over-ripe-good-for-little bananas. When we don’t stay humbled and surrendered to The Father, we are fruitless and do not glorify Him. Know your place in Him, and stay fruitful in His service.