TRUE FRUIT

Hello there dear gist partner.

How are you doing this fine December day? How’s preparation for Christmas coming along? Here’s hoping you’re not leaving Jesus out of your celebration plans.

Welcome to today’s gist.

So, I was studying something recently in Scriptures that hit me again and I thought to share. There’s this very popular, but not necessarily correctly used, statement in Christianity; “God sees my heart.” That is in itself true, but we have over time used this as an excuse for mumu behavior in among us Christians, you’d see someone behaving anyhow and once you try to call their attention to their bad behavior, they would be quick to quote passages like Luke 6 verses 37, 41 and 42 to tell you not to judge them because you sef no too too holy like that and that it is only God that sees the heart and He alone should judge them. While that is all true, though not in the twisted context people who want to make excuses for their bad behavior use it, there is something really instructive about Luke 6 verses 43 to 45 that I want us to gist about for a bit.

Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, said something (check Bibles wey dey put words of Jesus in red, you go see say these verses all dey in red); He said that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, neither can a bad tree bear good fruit but each tree is known by their fruit, or like we say popularly “by their fruits, you shall know them.” What does this mean to us as Christians? Jesus goes further to say that a good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good while the evil person, out of the evil treasure of his heart, produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

This means that if I say I am a good person, then my actions must show good works; according to our Lord Jesus, it’s not possible to be a good person who just happens to be doing bad things; if your works are bad then, at your core, you sef  no be good person. Make I just remind you before you say I dey judge say na Jesus talk am oo, check Luke 6:43-45, me na message I dey relay to you. To be good person no be for mouth, let the things that proceed from you be good too, “condition make crayfish bend” no dey for this matter: there’s no in-between, you are either good or bad. I understand how in our ‘shades of gray’ generation, this may come off as being too harsh, no worry e do me for body ma before I dey tell you like this, but it’s not, it is statement of fact, na you now go determine where you dey by wetin you dey do.

Let the devil not deceive you into living in evil while thinking that God knows that you are a good person so make God just turn face from your bad behavior, that’s not how it works, let your works be good too! That’s the truest profession of goodness you can ever make, the one that your actions tell.

God is calling you today to examine your actions sincerely and really ask yourself if the things you are doing bear testimony to the kind of person you say you are and who you want to be. Let the honest answers you give tell you the work you need to do as we approach the 2025.

May God help us to start living out our professions.

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: the song recommendation for this week is Another Measure by 1Spirit and Theophilus Sunday. Very funny short story, the day my Bar Finals timetable came out, the next thing that came out of my mouth was “Intensify, intensify, this fire is not enough oo”, because truly that fire been no dey enough. But more than the ginger this song gave me as I studied for Bar Finals, this song is an expression of an increased hunger and desire for deeper intimacy with God; it is a reminder that no matter where you think say you don reach, there is room to grow in God and we should never get to the point of stagnation in our walk with God. I pray that this song blesses you as it blesses me, enjoy.

Well that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you next week.

 

Love,

Achenyo.

 

PS. It’s 17 days to my father’s 70^th birthday, do say a prayer for him, thanks and God bless.