And when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. Matthew 21:19
As a lad growing up on the farm, one of my favourite places was the apple orchard, always a wonderful place for climbing, and frequently a fine place to find a tasty morsel of fruit. In early August, my sisters and I would comb the Red Astrachan trees in the orchard’s southeast corner, looking for the first sign of ripening apples. We loved those first signs of pink, knowing the apples were beginning to sweeten. But there was an interesting aspect to those trees; after a bountiful harvest one year, they would produce few or no apples the next year. This led to many disappointments as we searched for ripening fruit. But we would know that the next year, there would be plenty of apples again. We simply had to delay our expectations for a year. What about the fig tree that Jesus saw, was it having an off year? The Lord required fruit that day, and waiting was not an option. So the tree forever lost its ability to be fruitful. Do we ever lose out for the same reason?
Do you know of any withered Christians, folks who profess to belong to the Lord but who never have anything in the way of service or testimony for Him? Do you ever encounter times of fruitlessness in your own life? There is a great danger that if we fail to produce fruit when the Lord is looking for it, He will take away our ability to ever serve Him. Can you imagine such a sorry condition? Unable to appreciate a lovely hymn of praise, unable to live a thankful heart in worship, unable to hand out a Gospel tract to a needy lost soul, unable to appreciate the fellowship of other believers, unable to give money or other materials to the Lord, unable to show a Christ-like spirit of loving and caring to those around. A fruitless Christian is a sad Christian, losing out on all that is worthwhile in time and depriving himself of all reward in eternity.
Jesus is looking today to all of us to produce fruit in our lives. How plentiful is the supply on my tree? -Jim MacIntosh