Faithful Friday: I wanna be fruity!

What a revival! 

While our bodies are exhausted from the long (short) week of late nights, our souls are REVIVED!  Over 10 lives were eternally changed over the course of five days, with decisions of salvation.  An innumerable amount of lives were refreshed and hopefully forever changed from the contagious passion of our guest pastor, Steve Ayers.

There were so many nuggets that I could share with you, but one especially impacted me and it'll be my focus for this Faithful Friday.  (I encourage you to check out our podcast to listen to each of the sermons though.)

It was interesting that my exact reading that morning was the scripture of focus for Pastor Steve's sermon. 

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 

Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree,

“May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.  - Mark 11:12-14

I've never eaten a fig, that I remember, and I didn't really know anything about a fig tree until that morning.  When I'd read the scripture earlier, for a moment I thought, "Gee, that was harsh."  It wasn't until later when I learned that Jesus cursed the tree due to the fact that it had all the outward signs of bearing fruit, from the fullness of leaves, but was a hypocrite because it had none.  And truly, if we aren't serving a purpose, what good are we?
 
Fig trees aren't the prettiest, they're knotty and don't play well with others.  The roots are greedy, spreading beyond the tree, often choking out other vegetation.  But those that mature and bear fruit, provide one of the most sustainable sources of food.  Figs are low in calories but high in fiber, anti-oxidants and minerals.  Even an ugly tree can fulfill its purpose when it does what God planned it to do.

I couldn't help but sit there during the sermon and compare my life to that of a fig tree.  Yes, I've had lots of ugly.  And I've had my share of looking like everything was together when it was anything but.  While I'm blessed to say I'm in the stage of life that is bearing fruit, I know that daily I need some pruning. 

I want my tree to be used up at the end of my life, to have born all the fruit I could possibly bear.  And to know that my tree was always used for God's glory, never my own.

Less leaves, more fruit. 

That's my earnest prayer...