Luke 6:43-45 A Tree is Known by its Fruit
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: July 21, 2018 Luke 6:43-45
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
(Understanding the Text) This is part of the whole sermon about doing good for evil, not judging others, giving and forgiving, and logs in our eyes. Then Jesus talks about fruit. What is the bad fruit in this context? Returning evil for evil, judging others, not forgiving, and being stingy. However, these verses say that these actions and emotions come from the heart of a person, the person’s basic character.
The verses say that what we treasure in our hearts is what we will say and do. If we treasure our self-righteousness, then we will not forgive and will feel justified in returning bad for bad. If we treasure Jesus’ righteousness, then we will forgive and return good for bad. If we treasure our own hurts and pride, we won’t naturally want to give to others, but if we treasure Christ’s healing of our souls and realize that we ourselves are broken, we will be more likely to give.
In these passages there is a relationship between judgment and giving. If we judge others as being bad in some way, we will be less inclined to give to them, but if we realize that their faults are similar to our own brokenness we will give to a fellow victim of this world.
These verses are saying that we must be careful what we treasure because the things we treasure determine who we are. We may be thorny and brambly if we treasure the ideas of this world and ourselves. We may have the equivalent of figs and grapes if we treasure Jesus. What do I treasure?
(Application / Revelation of God) My application to myself is that Jesus’ faithfulness to me is my treasure. However, my faith is small and I tend to worry and doubt His trustworthiness when it comes to myself. I need to determine that I will believe Jesus’ promises and pray for more faith. I need to know that Jesus loves me and wants what is best for me. I need to trust Jesus more than I trust my own ways. That is hard to do, but when I trust Him, I will bring forth fruits that will nourish others. However, I first need to believe in Jesus’ faithfulness.
(Prayer) Why is it so hard for me to trust You? With my head, I know that You have proven that You are trustworthy. With my will, I have decided that I choose to trust You, but with my nature, I can’t trust You. I hold something back. Please, help me to trust You.