Tree Of No Fruit

The Tree Of No Fruit

Hab 3:17 Though the fig tree shall not blossom, and fruit is not on the vines; the work of the olive fails, and the fields make no food; the flock is cut off from the fold, and no herd is in the stalls,

Ever had a day like that? Raise your hands because I know you have. You sit at your desk and look at the sun coming up and the depression that oppresses your soul is like a sore tooth, but you do not know where the soreness is coming from.

Seriously, I never thought Habakkuk could ever teach me a lesson. I do not think I’ve every heard a sermon on Habakkuk. But, there is was in black and white. Verse 17 of chapter 3. Yes. I feel that way. Empty. Void. Depressed. Where is the fruit that God needs from me? Where is the stuff that He works through me? Then I read verse 18.

Hab 3:18 yet I will exult in Jehovah; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

It’s like Job declares, “Though He slay me, I will still praise Him.”

I get it! In the time it takes to blink, a thousands years could expire… it all depends upon perspective. God has no time constraints because He invented time. From my perspective, 30 seconds seems like ten years sometimes. These few months of grief are but a speck in my time line, and do not amount to a nano second in God’s time. And it all means absolutely nothing compared to the wonders God has planned for eternity.

To God, fruit is the purpose, not the tree.

Mat 21:19 And seeing one fig tree by the road, He went up to it, and found nothing on it except leaves only. And He said to it, Let there be no more fruit from you forever. And the fig tree immediately dried up.

Crikey!

Disappointing God has huge repercussions. This fig tree is in Tanzania. Why an arch had to be cut through the tree instead of going around it, I do not know. But it teaches me a lesson just as the verse from Matthew does.

Jonah blathers about Nineveh’s repentance and pouts on a hill. God causes a vine to grow that protects Jonah from the scorching sun and the beating heat. Then God causes a worm to eat the vine, the vine withers and Jonah, fainting from the sun and heat, pouts even more. I can see God shaking his head at Jonah.

“Don’t you get it yet, son?” God asks. “You have pity for a plant that lasted 24 hours, how much more pity I have on the more that 120,000 innocents of Nineveh who do not know their right hand from their left hand. Quit looking inside your self, having pity on yourself and start looking at Me."

God spent a lot of time teaching me, training me, carrying me, dancing with me, loving me and walking with me. Now it is time that I walk His way, follow His steps, wait for His timing, bear His fruit, work His works.

I never realized writing a post would lift that darkness… but, I see the Light. I feel good.