40 Days of Prayer, Day 35
Day 35, Saturday, September 24
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3
The Contrite Heart and the Bearing of Fruit
God is a God of relationships. As with all relationships, there is an evidential impact on our lives, especially if the relationship is truly significant to us. As it is with human relationships, so it is in our relationship with God. If we know Him, there will be evidence of that relationship. Throughout the scriptures, God gives detailed descriptions of the external evidence of those who are truly His followers. In many of these texts, this external evidence is referred to as the bearing of fruit. The psalmist in Psalm 1 described it this way. “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” Like a healthy fruit tree, believers who are established in their relationship with God, bear fruit. Jesus described the impact of our relationship this way in John 15:4-5. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Fruit bearing is the distinctive mark of those who have a relationship with Christ. For those who are walking with Christ, abiding with Christ, living daily in a faith relationship with Christ, He produces fruit in them. The fruit comes from Christ. Christ produces the fruit as an extension of the relationship. “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” When we are humble before God with contrite hearts, then He abides with us. The outcome of the relationship is fruit.
Yesterday we looked at the type of fruit Jesus had in mind in the Sermon on the Mount. Today, let’s take a few moments to look at other passages that speak to the types of fruit that are evident in those who are contrite in heart. What evidence do we see in those who have entered into an abiding relationship with Christ? The contrite-hearted believer abides with Christ and Christ abides with them. This relationship is on display in the way the Spirit of God works in the believer. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 When we engage with a whole heart in our relationship with God through faith in Christ, God produces these attitudes in our lives. These attributes do not come from our own efforts but by the power of God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit abides within us and produces these attitudes. This marks the life of the follower of Christ. If there is no love, joy, peace, patience or kindness when we are dealing with someone at home or at work, then we are not abiding in Christ. He has provided these evidential delineations, these attributes that display the impact of our relationship to Him. If someone claims to know God but does not have the evidence of knowing Him as described in Galatians, then that person could be making a false claim. Those who live with no self-control or no gentleness give no evidence of knowing the God who created them. This is a very serious matter. The Bible gives great caution to those who make false claims about their knowledge of God and their relationship to Him. The Bible also gives clear teaching on the types of attributes that would be evident if a person really did know God. When these attitudes of the heart do not dominate the life, then the person does not have an abiding relationship with God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, regardless of what they claim about knowing God.
Paul also describes the fruit of the believer as attributes of truth and righteousness. If we are truly walking with God, then we will put away the attitudes and actions of our old life. Instead, we will walk in light. Light is used as an analogy for truth and righteousness throughout the scripture. In Ephesians Paul said this to the church. Therefore, do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Those who walk with God as His children will walk in truth and righteousness. If we are abiding with Him, walking with Him, living in an ongoing and vibrant relationship with Him, then His truth and His righteousness flows naturally out of that relationship. To claim to know Him but to know Him in ways that are inconsistent to His Word, is a false claim. To claim to walk with Him but to live in ways that are inconsistent to His righteous standards as described in His Word, is a false claim. The evidence of the believer’s walk with Christ flows out of our attitudes, thoughts and actions. These attitudes, thoughts and actions must reflect the fruit of the Spirit and the evidence of truth and righteousness.
Prayer Focus
Lord, create in me the fruit of the Spirit. Change my attitudes and actions so that the evidence of my relationship with you will be on display. I need You every minute of every day. Only by an abiding relationship with You can I see a transformation in me. Remove the sin that hinders the production of fruit. Draw me closer to You so that as I walk with You, Your attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness will be evident in my life. Help me to walk in truth and righteousness. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, amen.
From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice
But now, how shall this man be reclaimed from this sin? How shall he be brought, wrought, and made, to be out of love with it? Doubtless it can be by no other means, by what we can see in the Word, but by the wounding, breaking, and disabling of the heart that loves it, and by that means making it a plague and gall unto it. Sin may be made an affliction, and as gall and wormwood to them that love it; but the making of it so bitter a thing to such a man, will not be done but by great and sore means. I remember we had in our town some time since, a little girl that loved to eat the heads of foul tobacco-pipes, and neither rod nor good words could reclaim her, and make her leave them. So her father takes advice of a doctor, to wean her from them, and it was this: Take, says he, a great many of the foulest tobacco-pipe heads you can get, and boil them in milk, and make a posset of that milk, and make your daughter drink the posset-drink up. He did so, and gave his girl it, and made her drink it up; the which became so irksome and nauseous to her stomach, and made her so sick, that she could never abide to meddle with tobacco-pipe heads any more, and so was cured of that disease. You love your sin, and neither rod nor good words will as yet reclaim thee. Well, take heed; if thou wilt not be reclaimed, God will make thee a posset of them, which shall be so bitter to thy soul, so irksome to thy taste, so loathsome to thy mind, and so afflicting to thy heart, that it shall break it with sickness and grief, till it be loathsome to thee. I say, thus he will do if he loves thee; if not, he will suffer thee to take thy course, and will let thee go on with thy tobacco-pipe heads!