What You Produce

When coaches go recruiting, they usually show up planning to watch a select few players they have chosen based on the results of their athletic ability. They are there to see what their athletic ability produces. Sports are highly results-driven because these results usually tell what this athlete will be able to produce. Coaches see a direct relationship between the two.

To know if a tree produces fruit, I don’t have to drill into the tree’s center and look inside. All I have to do is look at the fruit. The same goes for a person. You don’t have to open up their heart to tell if it’s good or evil; simply look at what it produces. You might have heard this phrase when someone is called out for their actions, “Yeah, but you don’t know what is inside my heart.” This phrase is often used when someone doesn’t want to be judged for their outward actions and tries to make the argument that their heart is pure even if their actions are not.

Scripture tells us otherwise. In Luke 6, Jesus is linking the condition of our hearts to our outward speech. Jesus says we can inform the state of our hearts by how we act in this world. Just as I can tell the health of a tree by its fruit, we should be able to tell the internal condition of a person’s spirit by their actions.

As you examine your heart today, are your actions lining up with the state of your heart? If not, look to Christ, the only one who can remove and replace our stone heart with a new heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)