“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
The first three verses of Psalm 1 are about the godly person but I want to focus on verse 3. I want to concentrate on how we can have an abundant supply of God’s grace love and mercy to make us fruitful in our lives. The teaching here is clear: A tree that has an abundant supply of nourishment will be a fruitful tree. When this is applied to a godly person, it means that he or she has a constant supply of spiritual nourishment that makes his or her life fruitful. The lesson here is so simple that it seems almost unnecessary to write it, but obviously we need to be reminded of it. There is really nothing new here, but it often helps to be reminded of the obvious. First, a fruitful person will read and study the Bible daily. Bible reading is absolutely essential to a fruitful life. This being so, why don't we Christians spend more time in the Bible? This is so plain and simple that it hardly needs to be mentioned, but we need to be reminded anyway. We cannot have an abundant supply of God’s grace, love and mercy if we do not stay close to His word. I do not mean to be legalistic here, but when we neglect the Bible, we cease spiritual growth. I know this personally, that if I neglect the Bible I encounter more spiritual problems. That’s why I make an effort to read the Bible every day. There are not many things that I do seven days a week. For example I try to ride my stationary bike each morning, but I take one day off to break the monotony. But I do not take a day off from Bible reading, because it does not become monotonous, and because I know that I need it. I’m not bragging here. What I’m telling you is that I need an abundant supply of the word of God to help me to be fruitful in my service for God. Second, a fruitful person will, to quote Paul, "pray without ceasing." This does not mean that he or she will have to be on their knees all of the time, but they will stay in constant contact with Jesus. Every Christian needs a special time of prayer, but we need to remember that the ear of God is open to us all day every day. I make it a point to pray each morning, but that is by no means all of the praying that I do. Things come up all during the day every day that drive me to prayer. Watching world news is a good example of what drives me to prayer each day. Again, I’m not bragging, I’m just telling you that I need to stay in constant contact with God if I want to bear fruit for Him. It is important to stay in communication with God. He doesn’t need for us to pray, but we certainly need to pray and He loves to hear and answer our prayers. Third, a fruitful person will be involved in the fellowship of God's people called the church. Jesus shed His blood to create this fellowship of believers. We need the church because we need each other. Our problem is that we stress attending church more than we stress being church. The godly person is in good fellowship with fellow believers and is willing to learn from them. Fourth, the fruitful person will have to take all of the inspiration from the Bible, prayer and fellowship and go out and tell others about Jesus. We call it witnessing. All of this needs to be wrapped up in our love for God and for each other. I'm sure there is more that could be written about this verse, but these points should suffice. This seems almost too simple to be written, but the state of Christianity today seems to dictate that it is a lesson that we need to remember and to practice. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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