Do You Have Leaves or Fruit?

May 2, 2007

Dear Friend,

I was reading in my devotions in the book of Mark how Jesus was walking along and was hungry. He saw in the distance a fig tree that had a lot of leaves. Now if a fig tree has a lot of leaves, it means there will be some fruit! Because the fruit begins to form before the leaves do, if there are mature leaves, then Jesus could assume that He would be able to find some food to satisfy His hunger. The Bible tells us it was not the time for figs, as it was probably spring, and all the other trees around had not even budded out at this elevation. But here was a fig tree, amidst all the other trees, that was covered with leaves. All the other fig trees looked alike, locked in the leafless appearance of winter--except for this one tree.

So Jesus walks over to it; and, to His surprise, finds only leaves. No fruit. Even after searching each branch from the bottom to the top--only leaves. Here was a tree that was different from all other trees. It was doing something that no other tree was doing. It had leaves. But that's not what Jesus was needing or looking for. He wanted fruit. So He simply said, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again."

They walk into town; and the next day as they are walking along the same route, the disciples are astonished to see that the tree is all dry and withered. The leaves are wrinkled and dead. There is no life in the tree.

That fig tree was a symbol of a lot of people. In life there are three types of people. The first group lives a godless life; they don't pretend to be Christians. They have no time for that, and they don't even pretend.

Then, on the other end, there are those Christians who act like Jesus. Yes, they might make mistakes and they have faults; but they really want to be like Jesus, to talk like Jesus, and do what Jesus would do. And we can see it in their lives. They're different; and they are different because we can see the results of abiding with Christ and keeping their relationship alive with Him, which produces fruit.

But there's a third group. And they are in the middle. They call themselves Christians; and, at first, when you see them you might think, "Wow, what great Christians!" But as you get to know them better, you soon realize that they are all show and no actions. There is no fruit; only leaves. And, though they look good on the outside, on the inside they are really dead. Only they don't know it, because they are so focused on their leaves.

Jesus talks about this in Revelation 3, where He talks about three groups of people. Those who are hot and those who are cold. God can work with the cold, and help them to see their need of Him. And the hot, well, those are the ones on fire for God. But then there are the ones that are lukewarm, those that are neither hot nor cold. They think they're hot, but they are really not. They are just covered with leaves. And God says that those are the ones that make Him sick, just heartbroken, because they're the ones that really need Him but think that they already have Him!

How is it with you? Do you realize your need of God every day, and come to Him humbly and ask Him for grace and help? If so, God will answer your prayer! He never, ever will turn away one who honestly seeks Him. But if you think you have it all together, that you're doing pretty good, that you are not in need of anything more, then be careful! Do you judge others? Compare others to yourself? Use your ways of doing things as the norm? Watch out! You might be covered with just leaves; you may be lukewarm, and that is the condition that grieves God the most.

Spend time in prayer; and if you don't know what to say, you can simply pray the prayer that always gets a response when prayed from the heart: "God, be merciful to me a sinner." And He will be.

Have a great week! I'm praying for you!

Mark