This Wednesday night we talked about what it means to bear fruit, to abide in Christ, metaphors that Jesus gave us for living with Him.  How do I abide in Him?  How do I bear fruit?  What does that even look like for a woman living in a small town in western Pennsylvania?  Spiritual metaphors, yes, for spiritual realities, but we must slow down and listen like children again, to understand the everyday stories of truth He told us.

Trees make the fruit they were created to bear, from the stuff of their own makeup.  An apple tree makes apples because the life and stuff of apples flows through its branches.  And if a branch is torn off by the winds, it will die and stop producing apples, because it no longer has that supply from the tree.

Christ-followers produce the fruit they were created to bear, from the stuff of a new creation in Christ.  A Christian makes good fruit because the Holy Spirit flows through her, producing what He wants– the likeness of the Savior– transforming an ordinary sinner into someone ablaze with Christ’s beauty.  And if she is separated from the Source by the stress and busyness and distractions of this world, she will wither up and stop producing anything good, because she no longer has that supply of Christ’s life and righteousness.

Bearing fruit is intensely personal then, not just checking the right things off a list, or trying harder.  Bearing fruit happens in relationship with the One who grows it in us.  As Bruce Wilkinson says, “you bear inner fruit when you allow God to nurture in you a new, Christlike quality….You bear outward fruit when you allow God to work through you to bring Him glory.” (Secrets of the Vine, 96)  No wonder fruit only grows when we abide in Christ, our eyes fastened on Him, our hearts entwined in His, our souls turned upward listening for His still small voice.

“And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5)