Deep Roots Good Fruit

Deep Roots Good Fruit

The Lord’s insight. The deeper your root, the better your fruit.

Isaiah 37:31: “And a remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.”

Mark 4:20: “But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the Word, accept it, and bear fruit.”

In one case, the Lord tells us things must do. And in another, He tells us things we should not do. A believer must not choose to do one or the other. We must do both. To do this the Word must have deep roots in our lives.

John the Baptist warned the Jewish leaders of this very thing when they came to hear him preach. They withdrew from obvious sin but did not fully accept living a life of repentance. John 3:8.

I struggle with this very thing. And I imagine many others do too. We gladly accept the Truth of the Word, but we do not reject all that the world stands for that is contrary to the Word. I call these worldly Christians. The worldly Christian has shallow roots that produce unsweet fruit.

In Mark 4:20, Jesus describes four types of people and the fruit they produce. Our lives are either:

• Wayside lives. We hear the Word but not much of it sticks. When things get tough, the devil can take away what we had heard. The soil of the wayside life is too superficial to hold the Word.
• Stony lives: We hear the Word with gladness. But we are also made glad by lots of worldly things that are not of the Word. So much of our worldly life remains that the Word doesn’t have enough soil to grow. The soil of stony life allows for too much worldly soil.
• Thorny lives: We hear the Word, but we care more for things of the world like riches and honor and belonging. The thorny life produces more thorns than fruit.
• Good Lives: These hear the Word, accept the Word and bear fruit of the Word. The soil of the good life accepts more of the Word and rejects more of the World.

Believers must take root downward so that we can bear fruit upwards.  Good roots bear good fruit. Perhaps it would be easier to take roots downward if we allowed our lives to be sown into the Word more than simply allowing or hoping to have the Word sown into our lives.

When we allow our lives to be sown into the Word, the Lord will make sure that our lives take deep roots in the Word. And by taking deep roots, we will produce good fruit that comes from the Word. The more fruit the Word produces through us, the less worldly fruit we will produce.

When we allow our lives to be sown into the Word, we will no longer live by the wayside but on the inside of the Word. We will no longer live stony lives that find more joy for things of the world more than for the things of the Word.  And we will no longer live thorny lives that find our identity in the things of the world than more than in the things of the Word.

When we allow our lives to be planted in the Word, we will grow deeply rooted lives that produce good fruit that others will see and glorify the Lord.

Deep roots produce good fruits.

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