The Road to Fruitfulness

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” (Colossians 1:9-10 NLT)

What comes to mind when you think of fruitfulness? The first thing that comes to my mind is winning souls to the Lord, but I’m convinced fruitfulness involves much more. How about the disciplines of reading and studying Scripture and intercession on behalf of our loved ones, friends, and those who are hurting or lost?

Notice in the verses above Paul mentions his intentional and persistent (faithful) prayers on behalf of his brothers and sisters in Colossae. He asked the Lord to give them knowledge of His will, spiritual wisdom and understanding. “Then” he said their lives would reflect honor for the Lord and would be lived pleasingly before Him and out of the context of those kinds of lives will come “every kind of good fruit.” But that’s not all. The growing and learning process never stops because those are the avenues over which we get to know the Lord “better and better.”

Fruitfulness grows out of faithfulness that focuses on our relationship with the Lord. Notice the progression Paul outlines. Nothing happens in the building of our faith without believing (faith-filled) prayer. Fruitfulness is a by-product of prayerfulness. No prayer, no fruit.

But prayer alone isn’t enough. Our prayers are the avenue of gaining complete knowledge of his will. Do you want to know what God wants you to do? Ask Him! Because it’s out of the context of prayer that we grow in wisdom and understanding of His intentions as He grows us up in Him and His plans for us.

Those are the steps to building a strong foundation in the Lord. Without that foundation there can be no fruit because there can be no real faith. As J. D. Greear explains: “Fruitfulness matters, but the only road there is through consistent faithfulness.” 

The fruit of a Spirit led life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, are only evidenced in the life of someone surrendered to the Lord and seeking daily to walk in His will. Faithfulness, as well as the other “fruit” of the Spirit, are the pictures that are painted when God’s will becomes pre-eminent in our prayers and in our pathways, the way we order and live our lives.

What fruit do you want your life to bear? The only way anyone bears anything of value is by clinging to the Vine, the Lord Jesus. There are no “Lone-Ranger” Jesus followers, only slaves longing to obey their Master. The more we learn to value intimacy with our Savior, the more our lives will grow in their likeness of His.

We must not discard or discount the byproduct of fruitfulness: “you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” The fruit is secondary to the intimacy we long to have and must maintain with the Lord Jesus. There is no reward for which I long more than closeness with my Lord.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊