Quality grading...

Dear Friend,

This morning I was thinking about a bag apples i wanted to buy the other day. I was in a rush and wanted to grab my boys some fruit. I grabbed the bag and was about to walk to the cash register and then I noticed a bruise on one of the apples, so i slowed down and began to look at the other apples. Several of them had bruises, soft spots and other things wrong. Had I not slowed down, I would have missed this opportunity to bring home a good bag of fruit had I not slowed down. I was reminded of the importance of quality grading. Fruit is inspected and graded according for quality. If it is poorly inspected then it spoils fast and won't last long in the store.

The Holy Spirit (see Romans 8: 2-6)was sent to quality grade us, to provide us with a system of checks and balances to make sure we are "bearing" fruit. I think some of us miss this especially when we move so quickly in life. God said those of us who remain in him, should bear much fruit (see John 15:7). He prunes (quality grades) us so that we are able to produce more fruit. If we aren't careful we just "do life" without the influence of the Holy Spirit and miss our opportunities to "bear fruit". God wants us conscious of who we are daily, inspecting our fruit so that we can produce more fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 says, " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." These are the fruits that should be exemplified in our life DAILY.

I think about the story in which Jesus cursed the fig tree (see Mark 11: 12-25) for not producing the way it was supposed to produce. I have to ask myself what curses, what lack, what doubt, what drought is in my life because I am not producing the way God intended for me to produce. It is so easy for us to get comfortable or to be come our own fruit inspectors. I remember my uncle telling me a story of a conversation he had with God. God asked, "Son on a scale of 1-10 how would you rank yourself?" My uncle boldly proclaimed, "I am about an 8!" What he heard next would set him in order to do a greater work on himself. He said God said, "Son i see you about a 3, you've never stopped to ask how I see you? I have more work for you to do!" This only happens we are pruned more for His greater glory, but we have to be willing to allow HIM to inspect our fruit. This morning in your personal devotion time ask the Holy Spirit to inspect your fruit, ask Him to show you places in your heart in your life that aren't producing and then commit to do the work, so that you can be more like Christ and multiply kingdom here on earth. We were created to be producers.

Check out Today's Rebroadcast of Coffee and Conversations: The Pure in Heart: https://youtu.be/z4sFc_tkB48

Inspecting myself,

LMJ

P.S. The wonderful thing about God is He doesn't throw out bad fruit, He just prunes and teaches it how to reproduce. #winwinsituation