Lasting Fruit Takes Time

Scripture Reading:  John 15:1-17

Focus Verse:  John 15:4  “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”

Some things just take time.  Smart investors know that much time is needed to get a good return on your money after they have picked a good investment.  Those of you who have gardens, you know that you can’t plant seeds one day and the next day harvest the crops.  It takes time for the sun and the rain to do its work and for the crops to mature.

So often in our lives we get impatient.  We want things to happen immediately.   Some people may look for shortcuts to growing in their faith.  They want to be mature Christians the day after they receive salvation.  It doesn’t work that way.  A 5000 meter race is run by taking one step at a time over and over and over again until you reach the finish line.  If you want to be successful in your Christian life it will take a day after day commitment.  Fruit probably will not grow overnight, it will take time.  But after some weeks, months, and years you will see the spiritual fruit come.  Just as an investor checks on his investment and sees how his money has grown from where he started.

In John 15, Jesus talks about himself being the grapevine and us being the fruit.  Psalm 1 also says “They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.”

Galatians 5:22-23 refers to the fruits of the Spirit.  “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  Be faithful and patient because this may not happen as quickly as you would like.  Lasting fruit takes time.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries