Weekly Blog: How to Have a Fruitful Life
Dec 2, 2019 3122
There’s no question about it. God wants you to have a fruitful life. Jesus said it himself:
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples(John 15:8, NIV).
However, where it can get complicated is knowing what that looks like. We all have our own idea of what a fruitful, productive life looks like. And often, Christian have their ideas too, like I did.
I used to think that the fruit that God wanted from my life was better commandment-keeping, more perfection, or perhaps even converting other people to Christianity. I was deceived for many years. But in John 15, that’s not really what Jesus is talking about at all.
The fruit of love is the fruit that Jesus longs for in your life.
In John 15, here is the fruit that Jesus asks us to produce:
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command (John 15:10,15).
It would be easy to think that Jesus is referring to the Ten Commandments here, but if you thought that, you wouldn’t really be right. Of course, God’s law is always centred on the great commandment to love (Matthew 22:34-40). And particularly in the writings of the apostle John, whenever he talks about “commandments” he is always referring to the law of love. Here in John 15, we know exactly what commands Jesus is talking about here, because he precisely clarifies what he means in verse 12,
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (John 15:12).
The specific fruit that God wants to see in your life is love. Do you remember in the listing of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, which one comes first? That’s right: it starts like this,
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…(Gal 5:22, NIV).
God wants you to have a fruitful life.
In its most general form, to bear much fruit means to have a life full of the blessings of God. Stop for a moment and bring to mind the best things that have ever happened to you. They might include a wonderful relationship, being a mum or dad, educational or career achievements, or other beautiful memories that you treasure. I am certain that every one of those blessings was possible because someone loved you. Isn’t that true? All the best things that happen in your life are the fruit of love.
There is something else. God wants your life to be more and more fruitful all the time (John 15:2), abounding in love and all the good things that brings to you. Take a moment to think about where you are at in your life. Have you been increasing in fruitfulness or is your life stagnant?
It could be because you’ve been pursuing the wrong fruit. Pursue love for others. Obey Christ’s commandment.
You bring glory to God when your life bears much fruit. And your life will be filled with unexpected delight and heights of joy you never thought possible.
barigye
Dec 10, 2019
where as our Jesus wants us to bear fruit, in most cases we don't want to be pruned off the unwanted branches so that there is space for bearing much fruit. The Holy Spirit often convicts us to get rid of old nature still portrayed in our lives but seem we have no hearing ears and even seeing eyes It is better to do self examination and see which branches in your life need to be pruned example deception, anger