What'cha Gonna Do? In His Word 10-3-2022

 

This week as you read through our revisit from 2006, take time to think about where God wants you to be and why. 

 What happens if we are left alone to our own ideas of what to do in life? You know, they
always say we are to play the roll or do our own thing… but how can we know what is good to do, and what is right? Where do we go to find what is right or wrong?
 

Lets look—In His Word!

                                                                                               

Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right.                     Proverbs 20:11

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!  Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.                             Psalm 34:8-10

 

Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.  Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.                                                           Psalm 34:13-14

No doubt you have heard it said, we are known by our fruits. Today I want to look at how we know what our fruits will become. Will they be good and right? I have a tree in my yard, we know it is an apple tree because we planted it as a seed. A seed from an apple my son planted when he was little. Personally, I did not think much of it when he planted it, we all do this as children and so far I had not heard of anyone actually growing a tree from such a venture. My son had great faith in the seed to grow to be an apple tree and bear good fruit, because it came from good fruit. 

It began as a sprout.  Then grew to a plant. Now it is a tree, with actual branches branching out and reaching upwards!

"For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit.                                              Luke 6:43-44


 

Think on that for a moment. Planting the seed was a good thing; first of all, it made my son smile. Second it made him focus on taking care of his seed by watering it every day at first, then every so often, and now he has all but forgotten it since we transplanted it and it has grown on its own. It got itself rooted in; it no longer needs a stake to hold it up. When I look out the window I can see little, tiny buds on it preparing for the springtime flowers that will no doubt blossom there.

I could have stopped my son from planting that seed, I could have squashed his hopes of it growing by being doubtful, or more correctly letting him know that I doubted it would work. Instead, I chose to do the thing that would encourage growth in my child, as he was encouraging growth in a seed.

Though the tree has yet to flower and bare fruit, it has already built my faith. It has proven itself worthy of the birds perching on its branches. It is a good thing to plant a seed.

When we speak kindness, we plant seeds of kindness. If we speak in jesting, we plant seeds of jesting, anger, then anger… you have the idea. It is all a matter of choice.

We can test our fruit to see if it is good or bad, by the scriptures. The Word of God tells us throughout the Old, and New Testaments many times that we need to watch what we say or do to be sure it is pleasing to the Lord. Now a child learns this by trail and error. My younger son planted seeds this last year; he did not follow the directions on how to plant them but did it his own way. His came from a package, not from an apple. It came with instructions, how deep to plant them, how far apart, how much water.

This child, being one to do things his own way chose not to follow the instructions. He got impatient and began just dropping them wherever they landed instead of in the neat little rows we had set up for the seeds.

As of this year, the seeds have not produced anything.

He learned and this year we will be planting following instructions, fortunately seed packets are not expensive and can prove to be a good life lesson. He learned it was not good just to go about things all willy-nilly but to follow a plan and any instructions that come with something.

This same child loves Lego. He purchased an amazing creation with his own money, he was so proud of it and showed the box to me with a huge smile.

I looked at it and thought, “Wow, that will be too hard for him.” But I did not say anything like that.




He trotted off to his room, pulled out the instructions, laid them out, and then followed them step by step. He created the exact duplicate to the picture on the box! Now if any of you have read the Lego instructions before you know that they are precise and you must follow them in detail, not jumping ahead, or you will have to break it down and start over at some point. 

Our lives are the same way, we must follow God’s plan, or we will have to break it down and start over at some point. 

All of us start out in this world not knowing God, even though we may live in a Christian Nation. Did you know that God knew you even if you did not know Him? His Word tells us in Psalm 22, that He knew us in our mother’s womb! Even before that! Just as my apple seed boy knew his seed came from an apple, God knows what apple you came from!

Just as my Lego boy knew what his creation was to become, even before he opened the box, God knows what you are to become even before you are born! Today he has become a video game creator and other creative types of carrier. God knew he would become these and God has lead him to where he is, more than I did! 

Our job in order to make things good and right is to follow His example, His direction and His Words.

For instance, we can consider the fruit of our mouths. We are told many times that our words can be a hindrance in our lives. We must be careful what we speak; we can speak life or death, good or bad. We need to be sure that our fruit is coming out as good fruit and not rotten. In order for this to happen sometimes we have to treat our trees with vitamins, or bug deterrent sprays or washes. 

For you and I that means we need to dig into the Word more and more. We need to see if our lives line up with that Word.

Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"  Genesis 3:22-23

The scripture tells us that we have been granted the knowledge of good and evil, so none of us has an excuse for choosing to toss the seeds! We know what is right and wrong and that is a given.

If we follow God’s directions, and we choose to do the right thing in every situation then we will grow more and more like Him. Now Jesus Himself said there is none good, no not one; but we are also told that we are to someday be like Him. This means we are a work in progress. Day to day we have to make choices for good and not evil. For God is good.

Wouldn’t it have been great if we had not had to make that choice? If we could just go through life always doing what was good? Then we would never have to make restitution or fix what we did wrong. Then we would never have to break up the work we had done and rebuild it.

Do you know that when you read the Word of God each day it puts the right thoughts in your head? Think about it, there is only so much space for memory. If you clog your mind with foolish things, or evil things, stinken thinking, then there will not be room for the good.  We need to make room for the good in our lives.

Make time for spending time with the Lord, with your family as well as alone. We get so busy in our lives that we think God will fit in here and there. But the truth is He wants all of our lives, not just portions of it. Then once we have allowed Him to have them; He will reorganize them, refurbish them, and give them back to us with greater understanding of what to do.  But it takes filling our minds with the things of God.
The only way I know to do that is to get in His Word, and in His face through prayer. Prayer changes things: His Word builds on things, directs you in your days and gives you peace.

When I go with out these I am a bear, and am impatient, unkind, basically not someone you want to be around. Even my kids know if I have not been in the Word, or not had my prayer time in the mornings.

So how do we know what is good, and what is not? We look to the Lord; we look to His Word, and His direction. God is good. And if God is for us no one can stand against us.

 

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for being here each day to meet with me in prayer. Help me to do what is good and right today, that I might be a blessing to those around me and not a hindrance. Help me to be patient, not pushy.  In Jesus name, amen.

 

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.                             Galatians 5:22-26

 

Suggested readings for the coming week:  Ephesians 5:1-21,  Philippians 4:1-20,  John 15:1-27,  Hebrews 13-all, : Galatians 5:1-26, : Romans 6 &7.

,

Teresa M. Wilson

www.teresawilson.com

 

Copyright © 2006
  by Teresa M. Wilson.