On Bearing Fruit...

Last Sunday, Jeremy Seaward preached at my church's youth service regarding our attitude towards our relationship with God.

Amongst the points made by the 28-year old pastor (28?! I feel so unaccomplished now) was one regarding bearing fruit for Christ. He gave the example of a mango tree: a mango tree doesn't have to concentrate very hard and try with all its might to squeeze out a mango. It produces mangoes because it's a mango tree. That's just something that comes naturally to all mango trees. The same goes with rambutan trees, durian trees, apple trees, etc. That is why Jesus cursed the fruitless fig tree (Mark 11:11-22) -- it can't be called a fig tree if it didn't bear fruit.

We often react to all this teaching about "bearing fruit" by saying, "Ok, I'll go be more enthusiastic about evangelism. Maybe I'll tell 5 people about Christ by the end of the year." By doing that, we probably miss the forest for the trees coz if we were really on the same page as the Almighty, bearing fruit should come naturally. We shouldn't need to try real hard. That's not to say that there won't be challenges or that we won't be afraid. Rather, we will know what needs to be done and feel the burden and urgency accordingly. The fact that we don't speaks mountains about our spiritual condition. So we really need to get back to basics: Read your Bible, pray everyday and you will grow, grow grow.