Fruitless Christians

19Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, "No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered.


20Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all at once?"


21And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea, ' it will happen.


Matthew 21:19-21

When Jesus passed by the fig tree, He expected to find fruit. I don't remember all the details about fig trees but I think once they have the appearance of giving fruit (leaves fully grown) the figs should already be there. In this case they were not. This is just like Christians. We may have the appearance of disciples but what we are is just fluff, a Pharisee.

There seems to be two points here: fruitfulness and faith. We just spoke about being fruitless Christians. It's kind of like a car that doesn't drive, or lamp that doesn't illuminate; what good is it? It's useless for what the Creator designed it for.

The other part that Jesus talks of is faith. I find it interesting that He mentions it here because the message about fruitless followers seems big enough to digest. At this moment the disciples are asking about how this happened (withered fig trees) and the focus turned towards faith. He even talks about being able to move mountains with faith.

When I try to connect the two areas, I starting wondering if faith was the subject and the fruitless fig tree was the platform, the chosen backdrop to make an example. This is like healing and forgiveness was the point in the blind sinner. Faith will reveal the status of our fruitful or fruitless hearts.

Does my faith move mountains or does it wither like the fig tree? In my head I would say i'm somewhere in the middle. But really, is there such a thing? I would consider this to be lukewarm and this is repulsive to God.

What are some practical steps to moving mountains? Really getting into His word is needed. A devoted, Spirit-led prayer life is definitely needed. But in James it talks about deeds, without it faith is dead. I need to get out there and excercize my faith. It's like a muscle that I never use, it gets weaker and weak to the point of atrophe.

Father God, thank You for pouring Your Spirit into all of Your children. Help me to lean on You entirely by faith. This is something I'm definitely not accustomed to but I want to. That's why I have a hard time waiting for a baby, I lean towards doing it my way instead of Yours. Thank You for blessing me with a faithful wife that I learn from daily. Too long I've relied on my own mechanisms and I need to give that up for Yours. In the precious name of Christ Jesus I pray, amen!

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