Yes, having the right kind of fruit... really matters!

If we learn nothing else from the parable Jesus shared in Luke 13:6-9, it is this lesson: The size of the tree did not matter, nor how long it had been there, or how beautiful the leaves appeared or how thick and plentiful the branches were. There was no fruit so the tree was ordered to be ‘cut down’. (7). Fruit matters. (Matt. 3:10; 7:17-20)

Here’s a little ‘secret’ I have come to discover – We are incapable of producing the ‘fruit’ that God is looking for (John 15:4-5). It matters not how much you desire to have this fruit or how hard you work at trying to be...’more patient, more kind, more gentle’. Even when we make small strides in ‘doing better’ in these areas, rarely does ‘that fruit’ last. And did I mention the fruit God is seeking should ‘last’? (John 15:16)

The only way genuine fruit can be produced in our lives is something has to ‘die’ first. (John 12:24; 3:30). Only then, is room made for God to produce and cultivate the fruit He seeks after. When we ‘die to impatience’, patience is born. When we ‘die to unkindness’, kindness is born.

Like it or not, it is how fruit is produced in the kingdom of God. While the world exhorts us to ‘get busy living’, we would do well to get busy following Jesus so we might be obedient in ‘dying’. (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Phil. 2:8)