All of Our Fruit Comes From Him

Hosea 14:8

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.

The choice to focus on and follow Jesus rather than the world becomes a very practical one.  Hosea clearly differentiates for us what our choices are.  He instructs that the Lord has no ties to the idols of the world.  He then points out that it is through Our Lord that that we gain the fruit of our lives. 

As we go through life, we deal with ordinary human stuff.  For most of us, the greater part of our days are filled with the labors that provide for us.  For all of us, the remainder of our days are portioned out for time with our families and loved ones, time for ourselves and perhaps time for service in our community.  All these things make up the fabric of our daily lives.

It is so natural to put all of our focus on the problems, the challenges and the opportunities in front of us each day.  It is so easy to reach out to what we think we know and what the world has to offer in order to address the issues of the day.  Jesus asks us to take nothing from the world.  He asks us to draw on Him and His indwelling Holy Spirit for our strength and our guidance.  Where we should differ from the world as disciples of Jesus Christ is in our approach to our daily tasks.  Everything that we do each day should be dominated by our devotion to Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus should be our focus in all things.  What the world has to offer has to be considered of little value in comparison.

It is very likely that if we choose what the world has to offer that we will find ourselves fighting our way upstream with failure and sorrow as our destiny.  If we choose to focus on what Our Savior has to offer, we will benefit from the natural outpouring of His Spirit within us and the world will recognize us by our fruit.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Your ways to us to through Your Son, Jesus.  We praise the name of Jesus for being the way, the truth and the life...for being all that we need in our lives.  We pray, Lord, that You will set us free from leaning on our own ways and the ways of the world.  We  pray that You provide us the grace and the wisdom to walk in Your ways under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  May we bear much fruit in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  We ask all these things in His Wonderful Name.