How is the Fruit harvest in your Life?
Hello friends!
Today’s church Bible reading passage put me in mind of something a dear friend told us once, while we were serving in missions in North Africa. We were mostly young families struggling to raise young children; God knew we needed some wise and Godly encouragement, so He sent a couple deep into their retirement to join our team a season. The lady used to tell us, “If you want to be nice little old people someday, you have to work at being a nice young people now!”
What a contrast to the evil goings-on in today’s passage from 2nd Kings 11! The Bible truly is real history of real people. Tragically, an evil old grandmother named Athaliah tries to hold onto power as queen by killing off everyone else in her family. God protects her infant grandson Joash from her bloodthirsty ways, and one day brings him back to the throne.
While we can’t see into Athaliah’s heart, her wicked cruelty is a matter of historical record. Only God can see into our hearts, but Jesus Himself taught us that every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. . . . So you’ll recognize them by their fruit. Matthew 7:17b and 20 (CSB)
Here is my point – let’s never give up on presenting ourselves to the Lord as His children, His servants, and asking Him to weed out our sinful fruits (actions and thoughts) and grow His good pure fruit in our lives. There is no time limit for such a humility of the heart; young or old, we can all reflect on the grace of God that took us from who we were (dead in our sins) to who we are in Christ (alive and justified by God and to God).
So, let me just ask – how is the fruit harvest in your life? Let’s never give into the temptation to say, “Well, I know there are areas of my life that are not pleasing to God, but I am just too old to change!” Rather, let’s keep in mind the encouraging words of John Newton (who wrote Amazing Grace). God took Newton from being a slave trader to a pastor. He writes:
I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. But I can truly say, that I am not what I once was--a slave to sin and Satan. And I can heartily say that by the grace of God, I am what I am!
Jamie McElrath
Senior Pastor
