Thought for Saturday, July 21st

July 21, 2012

Fortified With Fruit

To be fortified by something requires that we be connected to; associated with; and affected and influenced by the source of our fortification.

I wanted to entitle today’s thought ‘Fruitified by God’ but since fruitified is not a word that was not an option.  Yet the truth remains that we need to be influenced, affected, connected to and associated with the power and presence of God and we need to have the evidence of that influence in our daily lives.

There is an old adage that states ‘you are what you eat’: spiritually speaking this is true too.  If you feast on the bread of life; if you drink from the living waters, if you consume the manna of God’s words; if you are filled with the Holy Spirit: then the evidence of the source of your fortification should be clearly discernible in the things you say and do.

“Some men succeed by what they know; some by what they do; and a few by what they are.”

-       Elbert Hubbard

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:13-23

To be fortified by God’s power and presence requires that we actively engage in the consumption of and associate with those things that are of Him and about Him.

So are you fortified with His fruits?

Today’s Prayer

Father, you are a limitless source of all that I need to be all that you desire me to be: may I make myself available to you and may I be willing to fortify myself with all the resources you provide so that I can yield good fruit for you in the way I live.

“When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus “

-  Lyrics from ‘Heart of Worship’ by Matt Redman