Are you producing any fruit?

     Lately I have been a witness to a lot of lukewarm Christianity, myself included. When you are lukewarm there is not a true evidence of Christ in your life. What I mean by this is that you are either saved and not following Christ continuously or you say that you are saved but are not really. If you are saved, you might be filling yourself up on Sunday and expecting this to sustain you for the whole week but it's not enough to give you what you need. No one only eats once a week and is nourished, you have to continuously consume things that give you the "healthy body" you need. Same thing goes with Christianity. We cannot expect to have a relationship with Christ or push others to Him when our own lives outside of church, youth group, or whatever it may be do not reflect God and what He preaches. If you are not saved you might still go to church and be practicing a life of "going through the motions" but you are missing something in your life. There is a hunger there but you can't quite place what you're hungry for. I am telling you now friends it is time to recognize that the hunger is Jesus. He provides the satisfaction that we crave this is what is found in John 6:35; He is the bread of life and you will never go hungry with him. 

    There are so many verses about producing good fruit and what this can look like in your life but the one I find most fitting for us is John 15:8 "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples". God doesn't ask for you to do anything glamorous, in fact He gave us the fruits that He wants to see in our lives in Galatians: peace, joy, love, patience, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. Now having these fruits is easier said than done, but praying to have them I feel is even more of a testament to how much you want to produce fruit for the Lord. In order to bring these things into your life they are going to be tested. What I mean is that if you pray for kindness, you most likely are going to meet some not so kind people and when this happens it is your job as a Christian to use the fruit God gave you to be kind. This does not come from your human body, but is a gift from God. We would be none of these things without Him and the act of humbleness that Christians have to practice is knowing this. Christ + Nothing = Everything.

    Living fruitless lives is dangerous. Does it mean that you are in a rough patch with the Lord or are you truly saved? I don't say this to scare you but I do say it because the Lord is coming back soon and you have to decide for yourself whether you are going to heaven or hell. God, in an act of love gave us the choice to decide if we wanted to be with Him or not. He willingly sent His Son to die on a cross for you so that way you could have everlasting life. Don't waste the time that you have on earth pursuing things that are not going to lead you back to God. Whether it is starting to read a devotional in the morning, read one paragraph out of the Bible a day, or simply praying to Him in the morning or at night and thanking Him for all that He has done for you is a small way to pay Him back. Like I said, He doesn't ask for much, but we owe Him everything. Produce fruit in your life that is worthy of God, don't sit back and watch your life go by, make disciples and feed yourself with the bread of life. Also, if you are not saved I would love to talk with you about the gospel:) (704) 914-6718 call or text any time. 

May the peace and love of God be with you always,

Leah Carpenter