Seasons of Fruitfulness

Scriptural Text | Matthew 13:23
“The one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”

No Christian is fruitful all of the time. There are silent years in the lives of Paul, Peter – even Jesus – about which we know nothing. These are the years of pruning or preparation before a time of abundance. This is the scriptural pattern of God’s work in our lives as described in Psalm 1: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.”

But, as the saying goes, “There are two sides to every coin.” The other side of the coin is that every Christian is fruitful some of the time. A continual lack of fruit should prompt a believer to ask these kind of questions:

• What is hindering God’s fruitfulness in my life?
• Is there anything I’m tolerating that stands in the way of God’s full work in me?

I am reminded of the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 (also in Mark 4 and Luke 8). There appears to be three categories of enemies to the sower’s work: the evil one (v. 19), trouble and persecution (v. 21), and the worries of life (v. 22). The Christian who does not actively stand firm in opposition to any of these enemies will bear the consequences of fruitlessness and miss out on the joy of God’s providence and blessing.

The call to action is a holistic self-examination. Ask yourself, “Do I struggle with a discrepancy between the portrayal of the Christian life in Scripture and my own actual Christian experience?” If so, you may be in a preparation season OR there may be a hindrance from the enemy. The next question quickly becomes, “How do I know the answer to that kind of question?”

Fruitless periods in a Christian’s life call for discernment – a quality often lacking during the difficult times of life. But, God promises wisdom to those who ask. So ask. If we seek God’s guidance and prepare to accept whatever He might say, He will show us what hinders His work in our lives.