Mensa Otabil - A Faithful and Fruitful Person

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Welcome to a brand new week. We’ve been talking about fruitfulness since the previous week, and we will continue this week discussing fruitfulness. We have talked about several factors relating to our fruitful life.

So, Matthew 21:19 tells us: «And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, 'Let no fruit grow on you ever again.' Immediately, the fig tree withered away.» It is stunning to see what Jesus did to this fig tree because it seems uncharacteristic of Him.

Why do I say that? Jesus was noted for miracles. Miracles were the hallmark of His life and ministry. When you look at the ministry of Jesus, you see many miracles. In the miracles of Jesus, He takes something bad and makes it good. He takes something that is not doing well and makes it flourish. The sick become healed. The blind see. He doesn’t make a situation worse. When there is a storm, He calms it. That’s how Jesus works.

However, in this particular miracle, Jesus takes a situation that is not good and makes it worse. That should puzzle us. Why was Jesus so vehement against this tree? There could be other theological explanations for it, but I will just look at it from the surface. Why did Jesus react so vehemently? Why did He look at the tree that was not bearing fruit? Why didn’t He just say, «Bear fruit»? He had the power to do that, but instead, He denied it the chance to ever be useful.

This is not rare if you take into account the parables of Jesus and His teachings. In the parable of the talents, we see that Jesus talked about the fact that the person who was unproductive had his talent taken from him and given to the one who was productive. Our normal response would be that if someone is unproductive, we encourage them. If somebody is wasting resources, we encourage them. However, that is not God’s approach. God does not take kindly to wastefulness.

So when He says to us, «Be fruitful,» it’s a command. If we persist in not being fruitful, He takes from us the power to ever be fruitful again. That is a very severe judgment on us. That means if God gives me His grace, gifts, abilities, opens doors for me, and gives me opportunities, and I mess it up by being lazy and not using His gifts well, He will take what He has given to me from my hands. That is God’s judgment.

So God does not pamper fruitlessness. God does not encourage fruitlessness. The warning to all of us is that if we keep living unproductive lives, squandering opportunities, and abusing the gifts of God, misusing His grace, He will actually deny us everything that He has given to us. He took the one talent from the person and gave it to another, and He took life from this fig tree because that story later says it withered and died on the ground, as it was wasting the nutrients of the soil. If we fail to use God’s gifts to be fruitful, unfortunately, He takes His gifts and abilities from us.

So we have no other recourse except to be fruitful and maximize the opportunities that God has for us. This week, let us be fruitful.

Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, make my life fruitful. Help me to use all the gifts You have given me to their fullest. In Jesus' name, Amen. And amen.