By their fruit you will know them

 

By their fruit you will know them

 

Who?

 

False prophets, Satan, evil people, those desiring to draw you away from the Lord, those living in darkness.

 

Matthew 7:15-10 – Watch out for false prophets. They will come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good three bear’s good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad three cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus by their fruit you will recognize them.

 

When choosing your friends it is important to get to know the type of person you are befriending. Are they a good person or a bad person, by their fruit you will know them.

 

What does it mean by their fruit?

 

What is the result of their actions, what is the consequence of their behavior?

 

Are they honest, dishonest, fair, just, loyal, a person of their word?

 

Do they obey the law, the authority, pay taxes?

 

Are they full of love, hope and charity?

 

Do they gossip, slander, lead you into temptation, put you in compromising situations, are they selfish, self-centered or vain?

 

When in doubt about their fruit, pray to the Lord for guidance, he will give you the answers you desire.

 

The truth is we all know whether we are doing what is right or wrong, we also know when the friends we choose are doing right or wrong.

 

What we fail to do sometimes is to remain strong to our ideals, our beliefs. We compromise our beliefs for a moment of pleasure (potentially) or sin. In the long run and sometimes in the short run this will bring us much more pain than pleasure.

 

I look at our core group of friends, the Robey’s, the Buckholt’s, the Wuddle’s, the Smith’s, the Jenson’s, the Palmer’s, the Fuhrman’s and countless others that we socialize with from the church. I would say they produce excellent fruit, choice above all fruits, sweet, delicious, good and thus they are righteous and obedient followers of the Lord. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends. These people are kind and have hearts of gold.

 

Thank you Lord for our friends. Thank you Lord for the scriptures.

 

Thank you Lord for this pen, my hand does not hurt as bad today, even after I wrote a letter to my brother. I still lack the kind of inspiration I had a month ago. I am not quite sure why that is however as I have said before I am not going to beat myself up over it. I feel blessed to have written what I have.

 

I love you Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

 

I love my life; you have blessed me with an incredible family. I commit Lord to being a man of my word, to loving and serving you and my neighbors. I pray Lord that you keep all evil and the evil one away from me and my family; lead us not into temptation. I give you the power, and the glory, let your will be done in my life. Amen.