What Is Your Life Producing?

By Allen White

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work… Colossians 1:10

Living a worthy life and pleasing God starts with bearing fruit. We could immediately venture over to Galatians 5 and recite the fruit of the Spirit. But, that’s not where this passage is going. Paul throws a little curveball. It’s bearing fruit in every good work. Great, now pleasing God involves works. Bring in the guilt and condemnation. Here we go.

Okay, don’t go there yet. The New Living Translation puts it this way, “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.” So, we need to evaluate what kind of fruit our lives are producing? Get ready for a few ouch moments.

Where are you finding the best results these days? At home? At work? At church? Asleep? What is the best thing going on in your life right now? How does that thing reflect the values and nature of God?

If what we are producing demonstrates God’s character and His presence in our lives, then our lives are pleasing to Him. If what we’re excelling at has little or nothing to do with God, then we are excelling at pleasing ourselves.

Now, don’t get me wrong. You don’t have to close every business transaction with a presentation of the Four Spiritual Laws. God gives us the ability to work and make money. As long as making money doesn’t become our god. Pastor Mark Driscoll puts it this way, “When you’ve taken a good thing and made it a god thing, it becomes a bad thing.”

So how and where is God working in your life? Did you leave a friend more encouraged? Do your kids feel more confident? Does your spouse feel better loved? Does your boss view you as the up and coming linchpin of your organization?

Don’t misunderstand. The fruit of our lives is not bound for some sort of divine county fair. Our fruit is not judged on out-sizing or out-tasting everyone else’s. It has more to do with how we are connected to God. If we’re well connected to Him, then our fruit resembles Him. If our fruit looks like something else, then we’d better check our connection to God.

Fruit is only part of living a worthy life that pleases God. Tomorrow we will look at growing in knowledge. But, for today, take a couple of minutes and think about how God is using you these days? Where are you succeeding? Thank God for using you, and then ask Him for more.

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