“May God bless you with his special favor and wonderful peace as you come to know Jesus, our God and Lord, better and better. As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises.” – 2 Peter 1:2-4a

First Fruits

We’ve been looking at spiritual growth in Peter’s letters to the early church, and the signs of growing along our way.  Sorry I haven’t made much progress so far. Let today bring us the next step – first fruits.  Let’s call these first fruits grape tomatoes.

Grape tomatoes are small, sweet/tart, and if you aren’t into tomatoes, they can be a challenge to eat.  Hey, sort of like growing spiritually… baby steps… take the good with the bad sort of thing…  Generally first fruits are new experiences that can have rough beginnings.

As we get to know Jesus Christ better, “his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.”  Okay, Jesus plants the seed of faith, we get to know him more and more, he uses his power to give us the ability to live a godly life – whatever that is.  How do we accomplish a godly life? 

The fruit you produce comes from the way you live.  The way you live comes about as you interact with the Spirit of God within you.  If you live like a thorn bush, your fruit may be hard to get.  But if you live like a fig tree, you’ll bear sweet fruit. 

Okay, enough with the flora metaphora, lets get down to the nitty gritty.  It is what you do with the life you’ve been given that determines your fruit.  You’ve had everything you need given you to produce.  God won’t let you go without continuing to care for you.  As you and God talk, walk, live, love others and attempt good works – all these are good fruit – you grow spiritually.  Good works, like bearing good fruit - even our first fruits - is rooted in giving.

Do you always please God?  Maybe your answer is no, but that is why they call this spiritual growth, not instant sea monkeys. You have received by the power of Jesus Christ what you need for spiritual growth.  Now start looking for those first fruits!

Invitation to pray: Jesus, you have given your promises to me.  You’ve shared your glory with me.  You promise to never leave me.  You promise that you love me.  Walk with me.  Talk to me.  Live in me.  You have given.  Help me do some good for some of all the people of this world, the one’s that you love so much you came to earth to rescue them. Loving you, loving me, and loving others are good works, and signs of spiritual growth.  Help me love.  Amen.