Producing fruit

This week I’ve been reading in John chapter 15, so I thought I’d just share some things God’s been teaching me in my quiet times with Him.

Jesus talks about being the True Vine, and God being the gardener. I believe we are the branches on that true vine. The thing about branches is, if they don’t produce fruit, they don’t belong on the vine. This made me think about our tangerine tree.
Producing fruit is a natural part of being a tree. There’s not much I need to do to get our tree to produce tangerines. I can’t remember a time I went out and begged that tree to produce some tangerines. Sure, I could add fertilizer or trim the dead branches, but for the most part, I just sit back and watch and about this time of year, we’ve got tons of tangerines to enjoy and share.
As Christians, I believe it ought to be natural that we produce spiritual fruit. It can’t be forced or faked, as my pastor once said, that'd be like taping grapefruits on an oak tree, but with God living in us, the natural result should be that we produce much fruit.