“The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:12, NIV).
Through the power of His Word, God brought beauty to the barrenness and added color to the drabness. God did not create anything new. He just called it forth from what was already present, because apparently that which was necessary for plant life was in the soil.
It doesn’t matter if your life has always been dry, barren, bleak, desolate, and ugly, or if it has become that way because of some tragedy or crisis. If you submit your life to the skillful touch of the Creator, He has the power to transform you into someone who is beautiful – beautiful not because of a toned physique or a perfect figure or manageable hair but because the life of Christ radiates from within you: His joy sparkling from your eyes, His love lighting up your face.
Why is it that Christians go running around, measuring the abundance of each other’s fruit as well as their own, reading books on fruitfulness, going to seminars about greater fruitfulness, when it’s really not their concern? Before you start to protest, let me assure you I desire with all of my heart to bear much fruit for the glory of God.
But the fruit in my life is His concern, not mine. My concern is to make sure of three things: that as a potential fruit-bearing branch, I am connected to the Vine and keep that connection clean and unobstructed; that I submit to the cultivation of the Vinedresser, which primarily involves His pruning in my life; and that I communicate with Him my heart’s desire.
