Your fruits are a part of your identity in Christ.

Are you familiar with the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree in the Gospel of Mark? The tree had nothing but leaves and bore no fruit. This passage in the Bible is there to teach the importance of fruit in the believer’s life.

You will know them by their fruit. Matthew 7 Notice, in this verse, it doesn’t say “You will know them by their words.” or “You will know them by their title.” No, it says “You will know them by their fruit.” We can’t simply call ourselves Christians and expect that to be enough.

So what exactly are fruits? Fruits are the product of what we sow and allow God to water. One cannot speak apples and oranges into existence; they require a certain amount of labor, of action. Fruits are evidence of our faith. Actions speak louder than words; actions yield fruit.

This is the part we don’t like to hear. The greater the sacrifices we make, the more evidence there is for our faith. The more we sow, the more fruit we will have to reap. This reaping process isn’t always in the physical realm, either. This blog is a great example of a physical fruit. It’s a product of hours upon hours of sowing—podcasts, YouTube videos, sermons, books, conversations, Bible study, and prayer. Spiritual fruits reside in the hearts of those who have the love of God in them. The Bible defines fruits of the spirit as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I’m going to share a metaphor I heard a long time ago during an amazing sermon by The Porch on YouTube. The speaker had a broken chair up on the stage with him, and he calls up a small group of people to join him. “Do you have faith in this broken chair?” he asked. “Do you believe it will hold your weight?” The first person to respond, if I remember correctly, had a few extra pounds on him, and he jokingly said “I do.” The speaker then asked him to step forward and sit down in the chair. Now, that suddenly changed things, didn’t it? His faith was then put to the test. Do you really have faith in God? Well, trust Him. Live a life that aligns with that faith. Sit down in the Word; live by it. Prove you have faith that it will hold you! Do you have faith that the sacrifices you are making are not in vain? The sacrifices we make today will determine what fruit we see tomorrow.