Devotion

Have you ever been hungry and seen what looked like a delicious piece of fruit only to take a bite and...eww! Even good-looking fruit can sometimes taste bad, and fruit that has not been taken care of well will be rotten. I think you can probably see where I am going with this metaphor!

We are the fruits of our labor. The effort that we put into our faith journey is what we will get out. If you didn't study for a test at all or, better yet, studied a book filled with all the wrong answers, you wouldn't expect to do very well. The same is true of life.

In these verses in Matthew, we are told that men do not gather thorns and thistles, we gather grapes and figs. We don't want the bad and painful, we want the delicious and healthy. The way we care for the plants and trees that the fruit grows on is important to the quality of the fruit. The same is obviously true of our spiritual journey and the quality of our relationship with Christ. How do you tend your plants?

Prayer

Dearest Father, patient shepherd, help me to tend my spiritual plant. My fruit is ready, ripe, but I know that I must continue to care for it with you as my guide. I pray that you send me to your scriptures, with enthusiasm and diligence, to learn the ways of your son, whose blood was shed so that I may live with you, together in heaven. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.