S141P6 – More precious than gold: good spiritual fruit

Pro. 8:17-19

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.  Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness.  My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.

The orchard was their livelihood, so they tended to it meticulously.  Those trees did not produce mere apples for that family.  They produced the food that would be on their table and the money that would pay their expenses.  One day, a great storm came through the valley.  Normally protected by the surrounding hills, the farmer and his family never had seen anything like it.  As they hunkered down in the cellar and waited for the storm to pass, their minds were focused only on their orchard.  Once they emerged from safety, they were met with the ruins of trees whose fruit never would grow again.  The bountiful orchard was no more, and they could depend on it no longer.

All physical fruit has something in common.  It lasts only so long before becoming useless or going bad.  Whether wheat, oranges or corn, none of it lasts forever, and it was not designed to.  These physical fruits and other wordly fruits like money and prestige all pass away in time.  Yet, so many of us place them at the tops of our priority lists.  While we certainly need food and money, there is greater fruit to be sought.  The spiritual fruit that comes from a nurtured relationship with the Lord endures.  If we are to spend the best part of our time and energy planting, we should be planting that spiritual fruit instead of whatever physical or worldly fruit catches our eye.  In fact, as we first sow into that relationship and reap its spiritual fruit, the rest will follow.

The question is one of which kind of harvest we would like to bring in.  We can have a bountiful harvest of all the things that will help us here and now but will one day be gone.  We can spend all of our time and energy sowing into those things, but we would be fools to do so.  The fruit of that labor is not valuable.  It cannot save one of us.  The Lord gives us the option to sow and reap in him, which is the better part.  That is where we find the fruit that is eternal and that far exceeds any silver or gold.  Father, thank You for the spiritual fruit You allow us to enjoy in your kingdom, and keep us focused on sowing there first.