Daily Devotional for Saturday, January 17

Jesus Taught About Two Trees

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh,” Luke 6:45.

When I taught elementary school in Louisiana, my students found tiny mysterious fruit growing on a vine along the fence of the playground. We all thought maybe someone had thrown out the remains of carved pumpkins and now it was coming back to life, but the fruit just did not quite look like a pumpkin. Of course, I am always looking to use real-life situations in the classroom, and this looked like a teaching opportunity. I had the students take pictures of the plant with our brand-new iPads, and they began working in groups to solve the mystery. Each group presented evidence as they claimed they had the solution which included different types of squash and pumpkins. When I talked to the custodian later that afternoon, he laughed as he shared that he sprayed weed killer on a watermelon vine last week along the fence of the playground.

People can try to hide their true nature, but eventually their fruit, or lack thereof, will be evident. There may even be instances like the mysterious playground fruit where we let our circumstances or other people douse our growth, and we never fully mature and produce fruit for the Lord. As Christians, we are to be new creations, and we need to allow God to change our hearts from the inside while we work on getting the proper nutrients: studying Scripture, fervent prayer, belonging to a church body, edification, worship and service.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Ask God to reveal what may be preventing consistent growth in your life. What fruit are you producing? Do they align with the fruit of the Spirit? May the Holy Spirit continuously create in us a humble and teachable heart.

Ashley Ridings