First Fruits

By: Fred Reid

      Surprisingly this one isn’t about tithes and offering! Gotcha!! Instead it’s about your responsibility and the command we have to be fruitful. The title better reads, First, Fruits! The first thing you must do is learn to be fruitful. Thus scripture the for this devotional comes from Genesis 1:28:

“And God blessed them and God said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”

      At this point God is speaking to Adam and Eve and His first command (not suggestion) is to be fruitful then multiply. Now I feel it is important to recognize that the game has changed since then in the fact that we are originally born in sin and must be saved first before this becomes our primary commandment; now back to our regularly scheduled programming already in session J.

      The sequential order of the commandment is paramount! We must be FRUTIFUL before we began to multiply; otherwise we will be passing on corruptible seeds that will only worsen with each generation and thus put us further and further away from the original plan of the seed. For instance, if an apple seed produced apples that were a little bit poisonous and people ignored that and kept replanting the seeds, the poison would increase with each germination and eventually we end up with a weapon instead of a delicious snack. Similarly, whatever you are doing that carries God’s name and thus His kingdom must be fruitful before He will allow it to multiply. Before you get the “well done my good and faithful servant” speech you have to properly take care of the few; then He will elevate you to ruler over many. That’s just simply how it works.

       What’s the contrast to this plan? If you skip over the fruitful part and just begin multiplying? There’s a scripture for that. Mark 11:12-14:

“And on the morrow when they were come from Bethany he was hungry ¹³ And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves he came if haply he might find anything thereon and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves for the time of figs was not yet ¹⁴ And Jesus answered and said unto it, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever.” And his disciples heard it.”

      So, Jesus cursed this fig tree because it was not fruitful. Notice the damage of fruitlessness, when people come looking for you to serve your purpose you are unable to; you have nothing to offer. Next, notice that it was not time YET for the figs to be produced. One of the key factors of fruitlessness is being out of season. Out of order, usually in my case, rushing. This was for/about me before I could ever tell anybody else about it. There is so much I want to do, and I’m looking for God to make a way and I get frustrated sometimes like this isn’t going the way I expected but He has shown me that I have not begun to be fruitful with what I have already. How can I be given increase; when there is no return on what I have? Instead the increase is IN me using what I currently have. There’s a scripture for that!

Matthew 25:14-30 is the story of the talents. I’ll allow you to look back over it real slow on your own time but a quick summary is, one servant was given 5 talents he invested and returned with 5 more talents (10 talents good business), another received 2 talents flipped those into 2 more (4 talents good bidness) a final servant got one talent and hid it and thus only had one talent when the ruler came back for a return (bad business, no business). These talents were given based on ability, this was the best they could handle. So we see the person that was already not able to hold/be trusted with as much talent proved it by hiding the one talent he did have! In the end his one talent was taken away and given to the one that had ten talents. Makes sense right? He’ll prolly turn that 11 into even more.

Anyways how does this relate? If you are asking God for more but still haven’t figured out how to work with what you already have to make THAT fruitful, how would you randomly make the increase He gives you fruitful? That’s not how the kingdom works. Jesus specifically says  the parable about the talents is about the kingdom of God. I don’t want anyone to feel discouraged though because there is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS hope in Christ. So, what do you do if you are the one talent having mug and you looking for more? There’s s scripture for that!

2 Kings 4:1-7. This scripture is about a woman that was behind in her finances and the tax folk were coming to take her sons, so she needed some increase for family! Elisha asked her WHAT DID SHE HAVE?! All she had was a little oil for a cake so she made it for him. As a result there was so much oil in her house that she could sell it to pay her debt. This serves as an example that whatever you DO have, find a way to give it to God and He will work it for an increase. Maybe you don’t have the job you want, but you have plenty of time on your hands, instead of spending ALL your time looking for jobs and feeling sad, find some time for God. Both praying, reading and singing, as well as helping other people around you. You will be surprised who he can connect you with and you’ll end up with a job you don’t even have to apply for. Maybe your money isn’t as swole as you would like, but you have great writing skills or organizational skills, PLANT THEM!! DON’T HIDE THEM!! Write stories for little kids, practice writing books, help organize church and community events! If you don’t use what you have God will give it to someone who will!

Over and out J