This devotion is a monthly ministry of the Pee Dee Baptist Association, comprised of 31 Southern Baptist churches in Dillon and Marlboro Counties.  For more information call 774-8062.
Featured this month is Rev. Rob Pierce, the pastor of Latta Baptist Church, Latta.

A Productive Life
What does it mean to be a fruitful Christian?
The word fruit is used 66 times in the New Testament. The first kind of fruit is the natural kind: grapes, raisins, and figs. The Bible also mentions biological fruit:  babies. The third kind of fruit is spiritual fruit:  Christ-like character.
God wants to see fruit in your life, the fruit of the Spirit … love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus said, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8) I want you to understand that the proof that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ is that you bear much fruit.
So, how can you and I seek to bear fruit in God’s Kingdom? First of all, just like a tree or a plant, you must cultivate roots. Look at what Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 17:7-8. “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be alike a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
You must have good roots in order to bear fruit. Why? To make it through tough times, times of heat and drought. Everyone goes through tough times. The question is, how do you respond to those tough times? If you want to develop some strong spiritual roots in your life, you must spend time in God’s Word and with Him in prayer. Secondly, you must eliminate the weeds in your life. Jesus illustrates this in the parable of the soils. You can read this parable in Luke 8. Each soil represents one of the ways we can respond to God’s Word.
You know what weeds are? They are a nuisance and can grow almost anywhere. What are the weeds in your life? They are the things that choke you spiritually. They may be good things, things that you are pursuing.
Some people will say, “Well, I just don’t have time to get involved at church.” Well, then, you need to do some weeding. How much effort does it take to grow a weed? None. You see, weeds are a sign of neglect and, if you neglect your spiritual life, you will choke and not bear fruit.
The third thing you need to do is to cooperate with God as He does some pruning in your life. We see this illustrated in the words of Jesus in John 15:1-2. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Pruning involves cutting off the dead branches and cutting back the healthy ones. You see, I’ve always thought that pruning involved just cutting back the dead things. In my life I thought it was God just getting rid of the bad things in my life, but God also cuts back the things in my life that are alive and healthy.
Why would God want to prune something that’s good and healthy in your life? To produce more fruit in your life. If you are a Christian, you will be pruned, and it’s not always easy. Sometimes we think that God is mad at us, but you need to understand that pruning is not punishment.
God uses pressure, problems, and people to prune you. In fact, He can use everything that happens in your life:  a rebellious child, a broken marriage, illness, even death to grow you into the person He wants you to be.
If I want my life to be fruitful, I must cultivate good roots, eliminate the weeds, cooperate with God’s pruning, and I must wait for the harvest. Understand that growth takes time. It’s not overnight. Here’s the way Jesus put it:  ”I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)
Jesus stresses here that death precedes life. Here He is talking about His own death, but the principle applies to us as well. We must die to our own selves in order to produce spiritual growth. The problem is that dying to our own selfishness takes time. Jesus addresses this in John 15:4. “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
You see, we cannot produce fruit if we don’t remain in Him. That means that,  if I’m going to bear fruit, I’d better take my time with God and in His Word seriously. Experience what God wants for you and your life in accomplishing His Kingdom purposes by living a productive and spiritually fruitful life.
If you’re not sure where to start, call 1-800-633-3446 to talk with someone about where you are spiritually and where to go from here.