What Is God Looking For?
Read Luke 13:6-9
“Seeking fruit.” These words describe what the Lord Jesus is looking for in the lives of His people. how patiently He cares for the tree, hoping that the fruit will appear. But if it does not appear, He will not permit it to take up space! What a warning to us.
What kind of fruit does the Lord want to find? For one thing, He wants us to win souls. “That I might have some fruit among you” was the yearning of Paul’s heart as he planned his trip to Rome (Ro 1:9-13). Soul-winning ought to be the burden of the believer’s life, seeking to win others to the Lord. It is not enough merely to know the Lord, attend church, support the Lord’s work, and seek to live a decent life. We must share Christ with the lost! “Ye shall be witnesses unto me!” He commanded in Acts 1:8.
There is also the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), which means the life of Christ seen in our lives. These Christian qualities cannot be manufactured or imitated; they must be produced by the Spirit in a living way. Fruit demands life; machines can manufacture shoes, but they cannot produce living fruit. Fruit demands light and water; and as the Christian walks in the light and drinks deeply of the fountain of living water, he will bear fruit for God’s glory.
Hebrews 13:15 mentions the fruit of the lips, “the sacrifice of praise.” How the Lord loves to hear His people praise and thank Him, and what a wonderful testimony thanksgiving is to the lost! Our personal witnessing ought not to be a cut-and-dried artificial thing; rather, it must be a living witness, the fruit of our lips coming from a loving and grateful heart.
Has the Gardener found any fruit in your life today?
(Copyright, Warren W. Wiersbe. First appeared in Thoughts for Men on the Move. May not be copied or reproduced without express written permission of the author.)
Dr. Warren Wiersbe (1929-2019) was an internationally known Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. While attending seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sermons were broadcast as the “Calvary Hour” on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, He served as the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 1971 to 1978. While at Moody Church he continued in radio ministry. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as “Eutychus X”, taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote the course material and taught a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. In 1980 he transitioned to Back to the Bible radio broadcasting network where he worked until 1990. Dr. Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In his lifetime, Dr. Wiersbe wrote over 170 books—including the popular Be series, which has sold over four million copies. Dr. Wiersbe was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).
