Much Good Fruit
For some reason, over the course of the last week, people have been giving me all kinds of fruit. Just this week alone, I have been given three pounds of bananas, five pounds of oranges, and fifteen pounds of apples. (Yes, I said fifteen!) And for those of you who know me, you know I don’t want a single one to go to waste. So, we’ve had all kinds of fruity snacks, desserts and meals over here for the past several days. Plain apples, applesauce, apples and peanut butter, apple pie, apple cobbler, apple crisp, apple muffins, apple-cinnamon French toast, and apple-cinnamon oatmeal. Tonight I’m making a broccoli salad and, yes, you guessed it. It will be loaded full of apples!
Just from reading this, I’m sure there are all kinds of thoughts that have gone through many of your heads. “That is so cool!” “How does she think of all those ways to use apples?” “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” “I would have just eaten as many as I could and threw the rest away.” “Why nobody ever gives me stuff like that?” “I would be so tired of apples by now.”
If you noticed, I never asked to be given an abundance of apples. I believe some were given to me to bless me but I believe the bulk of them were given to me because the giver knew I would do everything I could to not allow them to go to waste. I believe in many ways how we see this example of apples is similar to how we treat our spiritual gifts.
“That is so cool!” – We see others operating in their gift and we get excited about what they’re doing. Yet, we never take the step to identify and operate in what God has made cool about us.
“How does she think of all those ways to use apples?” – Sometimes when we see others operating in their gift we start to question how they do it. If we aren’t careful, we’ll eventually begin to compare our weaknesses to their strengths, which leaves us feeling inadequate.
“Ain’t nobody got time for that.” – Many of us will leave this earth without ever operating in the fullness of our giftedness because we refuse to invest the time necessary to develop our gift. So by default, we choose to remain undeveloped and unfulfilled.
“I would have just eaten as many as I could and threw the rest away.” – Unfortunately, many who do put in the work necessary to develop their gift choose to only use their gift for selfish gain. Once they use it to get what they want, they “throw away” the purpose for which God gave them the gift in the first place. We have to stop being selfish with our gifts. There are people in need of the very things we’re allowing to go to waste.
“Why nobody ever gives me stuff like that?” – Often times we focus so much on what we don’t have that we totally miss seeing what we do have. The Bible says he who is faithful with little will be faithful with much. Be faithful with what you already have and watch how God will bless you with more.
“I would be so tired of apples by now.” – Our spiritual gifts have been given to us to give away to others. You will never grow tired of consuming what you’ve been given if you’re constantly giving it away.
1 Peter 4:10 says, “God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” If God has given each of His children a gift, that means that includes you. If He has a variety of gifts to choose from, that means yours may not be the same as mine. If He instructs us to use our gifts to serve one another, that means He didn’t give them to us just to use them for ourselves or to allow them to go to waste. We must be purposeful about using our gifts to bless other people and to bring God glory. If we would be intentional about doing this each and every day, we’d begin to see our lives produce much good fruit.
Questions to Ask
· Which of the sample thoughts was closet to what you may have been thinking?
· How good of a steward are you of the gift God has given to you?
· What kind of fruit has your gift produced recently?
Scriptures to Study
· 1 Peter 4:10
· Luke 16:10
· Luke 12:48
To go even deeper, get your copy of one or all of our Everyday Wisdom Book Series and subscribe to our Everyday Wisdom Podcast.