Producing Fruit: God’s Job or Mine?
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“When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. (John 15:8-10, NLT)
I felt a bit nostalgic as I carried my buckets out to the blueberry patch one Saturday morning. When I lived in Alaska we would pick the most wonderful wild blueberries. A group of us would hike out to the berry bushes swinging our pails. The only thing we had to be concerned about was whether we were sharing our blueberry patch with a bear. As we walked home we would whirl our buckets around and around. The goal was to keep the blueberries in our pail – it was pretty easy for me since I ate most of mine before I got home!
When my family moved from Alaska to California there were no more blueberries to pick and I was brokenhearted. You can imagine my joy when I moved to Michigan as an adult and found out there were blueberries to pick!
This morning, I tied my bucket around my waist and began to pick. There is something wonderful about a blueberry patch. The bushes are tall and it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one around. It was so peaceful and quiet and the bushes were loaded with berries. I plopped a berry in my mouth and enjoyed its sweet goodness.
As I picked my way through bush after bush, I was reminded of the verses in John 15:8-10. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Am I producing fruit?” Is it the kind of fruit that Jesus wants in my life? Am I laden down with fruit like these bushes or are there just a few berries here and there?
I can get discouraged in my walk and feel like I’m not producing much of anything. I struggle with self-centeredness, pride and the need to be in control. But God reminded me out in that blueberry patch that I need to REMAIN in Him. Producing fruit is God’s job, not mine. My job is to once again place myself at His feet, seek Him first in all I do and rest in His love. What a delicious truth that is!
Father, Remind me that only You can produce fruit in my life. My task is to be faithful, to keep close to You, tucked up in Your love. Help me to stay close and not to stray. Protect me from the lie that suggests I need to work to produce fruit. Remind me that my job is to surrender and let You do the work in me. Amen.
Questions: Are you remaining in God’s love? Are you trying to produce your own fruit or are you letting God do the work in you? Are you discouraged with how little you’ve grown and how far you have to go?
10 Responses to “Producing Fruit: God’s Job or Mine?”
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In the words of Mother Teresa: “faithfulness, not success.”
I am reminded through this devotional as I face the troubles around me that the Lord is still being fruitful in my life. He blesses me with people who are helpful when we have a need and blesses me with a calm spirit as life sends me struggles only he can solve. Father God please continue to keep me calm. Amen
Dear sister in Christ,
Please pray for my family specifically my husband is unemployed and so am I. We both have college degrees and cannot seem to get a break. Our 18 year old daughter has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and at the end of Aug. I loose my insurance. Please pray for our family thank you.
Father God,
Right now I want to come into Your holy presence and bring eymarde and her family before Your throne of grace.
You have invited us to come boldly and to find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.
Father God, this is indeed a time of need for this family. Together we ask that You would open a door of opportunity for employment for this couple. We ask that it would be an opportunity that would include good insurance so their daughter can have the care she will need.
Father God, we praise You that You know every detail of this family. We thank You that You promise to be our Provider. Today may eymarde feel Your strength holding her. May she experience Your peace filling her. Encourage her today by the presence and power of Your Holy Spirit in her life.
Fill their home with fresh faith and a renewed confidence that You will take care of them. Please provide their immediate need this day for You know what it is Lord, and You care.
Lift their hearts to You and their eyes to You in fresh ways this day as they trust You together.
Thank you Lord for Your faithfulness. We ask these things in the powerful name of Jesus, amen.
God bless you eymarde!
Warmly,
Gail
Kristi, if WE don’t have to work to produce the fruit, then why does the sentence “When ‘you’ produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.” imply it? How is it i am reading this wrong?
Trisha, I think the key to the verses is the directive, “Remain in my love.” That is our part. When we remain in the arms of Jesus, drawing close to Him, and just surrendering our worries and cares about whether or not we are measuring up as this world would have us do, then we can allow Him to love us and accept us as He does: unconditionally! It is in remaining in the Light of this unconditional Love of Jesus that we can truly see that it is not in what we do, but who we are, that Jesus can grow in us and produce in us a rich harvest.
When we are too concerned with performance, we are not able to be our true selves, for we become entangled in fear of failure. Jesus wants us to just rest in Him, like He told Martha: “Mary has chosen the best thing, and it will not be taken from her.” It was not in producing and hard work that good fruit was produced in Mary, but in sitting at Jesus’ feet and taking in His character, His amazing Love! That is what He wants us to do. When we are able to do this, we will produce fruit automatically as Jesus transforms us from our old selves into His image and likeness, and we do not even notice the change as it happens – for, truly, He does the work!
Trisha, how about meditating on these verses, rolling them over and over in your mind, and saying them out loud, and ask the Lord Jesus to give you His revelation on them? Thank you so much for your question! It is a great one.
“When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. (John 15:8-10, NLT)
to Brenda, Thank you so much for caring enough to respond to my question! Bless you. In regards to Mary and Martha, i always wondered,”Well, if it wasn’t for Martha, they wouldn’t have gotten fed. If everyone is going to sit around at the feet of the LORD, how is anything going to get prepared!?” i mean SOMEONE has to DO something! i suppose having to be the MOTHER at 12 yrs old to 5 siblings when my mother left us, has something to do with feeling like i have to DO something for Jesus to love me. If the floors weren’t spotless and the grocery shopping list wasn’t followed to the “T”, i didn’t get the positive attention i so desperately craved. Everything was EXPECTED of and from ME! i was always loved by someone with IF and BECAUSE. As long as i conformed, i was loved. i am understanding more and more about this “remaining in the arms of Jesus” and not so much on being this “good little girl doing what is expected of me or else” mentality. Thank you again Brenda for this insight. ~HUG
good article thank you for posting it
Dear Eymarde,
How’s your daughter now? I too had a brain tumor in 1993 and had a hydrocephalus shunt in my stomach to drain the liquid from the brain as the tumor is blocking the liquid to flow. The Lord knows and He is in control.
Dear Yen and fellow ladies,
My daughter had brain surgery in Aug. of the last year. She had a very successful surgery and is now tumor and seizure free. Thank you for your prayers and concern. I am still unemployed but my husband did find work. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to look for work.
Dear Father God.
Lord I lift up these two people to YOU, as they are dealing with surgery and YOU said that if we let go and let God then YOU will take care of the healing in our lives. I pray that YOU will take full control in these two people and any who read this blog. As i said before-”YOU SAID” and it will be done. In Jesus Mightyname amen