Morning By Morning #252

Your fruitfulness comes from me.

Hosea 14:8

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Our fruit is a direct result of our union with God. And since the fruit of the branch is directly traceable to the root, when the connection is severed, the branch dies and no fruit is produced. By virtue of our union with Christ, we bring forth fruit, and just as each bunch of grapes began in the root, passed through the stem, flowed through the sap veins, and is finally fashioned into external fruit, every good work is first in Christ before being brought forth externally in us.

Dear Christian, greatly value your precious union to Christ, for it is the source of all the fruitfulness you can hope to know. If you were not joined to Jesus Christ, you would be an extremely barren branch.

Our fruit is a direct result of God’s sovereignty. When the dew falls from heaven, when a cloud looks down from above and is about to distill its liquid treasure, and when the bright sun increases the fruit in a cluster, each heavenly blessing could whisper to the tree and say, “Your fruitfulness comes from me.” Yes, the fruit owes much to the root, which is essential to its fruitfulness, but it also owes much to external influences. Thus, consider how much we owe to God’s sovereign grace! It is His grace that constantly provides us with life, guidance, comfort, strength, and anything else we need. We owe all our usefulness and goodness to His grace.

Our fruit is a direct result of God’s wise gardening. The gardener’s pruning knife promotes the fruitfulness of the vine by thinning clusters and cutting off excess shoots. It is the same, dear Christian, with the pruning the Lord gives you. Jesus said, “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” (John 15:1 – 2).

Thus, since God is the author of all our spiritual gifts of grace, may we give Him all the glory of our salvation.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Remember the words of Jesus, who said, “No branch can bear fruit by itself…Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches…Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4 – 5). And when Spurgeon says, “May we give [God] all the glory of our salvation,” he is not referring to just the moment the Lord saved our soul but is referring to our ongoing salvation, growth, and fruitfulness in Jesus Christ as well. Here is how Jesus put it, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

As confirmation of these thoughts, here is the context of our text verse today, along with the Lord’s final admonition given through Hosea:

I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon…Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

Hosea 14:5 – 7, 9