When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.
This brings great glory to my Father.
John 15:8
Jesus, may my heart find rest in Your love.
Help me live each day with Your love in the center of my life.
When Jesus talks about the fruit we produce in our lives, He’s talking about things like love, joy, peace, etc. (Go back to devotion #15 for a refresher.) These fruits are significant things that everyone wants in their lives, and they all reveal the goodness of God and His kingdom.
We don’t force these things to happen in our lives. Instead, we abide in Jesus, and as we trust and obey God in our daily lives, God’s Spirit changes our hearts and begins growing these fruits in our lives.
Sometimes we try really hard to act better, thinking God cares more about our behaviors than our heart. God’s approach is inside-out: He changes our hearts, and our behavior follows. When people see thechange in our lives and ask us about it, we can explain that God is working in us—it’s not us, it’s God.
When we abide in Jesus to produce fruit in our lives, God gets all the credit, and that’s just the way He planned it.
REFLECT:
How has God changed you from the inside-out? What’s different about your life now compared to your life before you said your big yes to Jesus?
RESPOND:
Thank God for His love for us and His work in our lives. Ask Him to help you pay ridiculous attention to how He’s changing you from the inside out.