www.bymonline.org | May 2020 | page 05
friends and spouses instead of ourselves.
So the whole day, at every instance you
meditate the Word and the whole day you bear
fruit. If you don't meditate the Word seriously, if
you don't spend sufficient time with your Bible, if
you don't write down your meditation, if you don't
prepare your heart as a good soil to produce much
fruit, then you are not going to give fruit. “How can
you serve the Lord with your lips if you don't serve
Him with your lives? How can you preach His
gospel with your tongues, when with hands, feet
and heart you are preaching the devil's gospel and
setting up an antichrist by your practical
unholiness?” asks Charles Spurgeon.
The remnant is always a minority. Those who
love the Word, who delight in it and put it to
practice are not even a handful. For example, Jesus
exhorted us to love our enemies. We read it,
meditate it but do not put it to practice. We must
join the minority. For that, we need practice and
perseverance.
Jesus told us a parable in Mark 4:27-29,
“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man
scatters seed on the ground. Night and day whether
he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows,
though he does not know how. All by itself the soil
produces the grain - first the stalk, then the head,
then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain
is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest
has come.”
Note, it is the soil that produces the grain. The
circumstances we are in, throws us in all kinds of
situations that try our character. We fail and we get
up. We fail seven times and we get up seven times.
This is how we become the stalk, then the head,
then the full grain. Then it ripens. So we need
practice and perseverance. “Next time I will be
better, next time I will not fail”, should be our
chorus as we push on. I received an email from a
girl who gets angry at the drop of a hat. I replied her.
She was so happy to know that controlling anger is
a lifetime process and was relieved. She had
expected a miracle. No miracle happens. We bud
and blossom and bear fruit. Unknown to us, it
grows. We may not feel the change happening in us
every day, but it is happening, alright.
In John 15:1-2, Jesus talks about the vine
and the branches. Our Father, the Gardener cuts
off every branch that bears no fruit, while every
branch that bears fruit, He prunes (v2). Both
receive cuts, both go through suffering. But barren
branches die in the agony and the fruitful branches
flourish in the pain. Mango tree produces sweet
fruit but neem produces bitter; both from the same
dirty soil. Suffering can bring out the best in us or
the worst. Job was pruned and he became more
fruitful; but Judas died in his humiliation. Three
people died on the cross. One man in his pain
reviled Jesus and went to hell. Another man prayed
to Jesus and went to paradise. The third Man,
Jesus, died in agony and brought many sons to
glory. How are you handling your pain?
Note what Jesus says: “This is to My Father's
glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves
to be My disciples” (v8). When we go through
suffering and produce abundant fruit, not only is
the Father glorified but the world recognizes us as
the disciples of Christ.
Following this, Jesus talked about the king of
fruits and the first fruit of the Spirit - Love! “Love
one another as I have loved you” (v 12). John was
sitting under the tutelage of Jesus who gave a new
commandment to love one another as He loved
them and thus let the world know they were His
disciples (Jn 13:34,35). That made a deep impact
on John. He decided to put it to practice. Being a
'Son of Thunder', it was hard work for him. He did