Life Fruits!

With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on. James 3:9‭-‬10‭ MSG

The tongue is one of the smallest parts of the body, but one with arguably the greatest impact on life. It is a window into the quality of our lives and it reveals the quality of the deposits and investments we have made over a period of time. Its use reveals the kind of persons we are.

Today's extract teaches a deep lesson about who we are. We were made to bring glory and praise to God; that was the original plan. We were created for God's pleasure and purpose and we were to fund fulfilment in the pursuit of that divine purpose. However, sin came and disrupted the plan, albeit temporarily, and has brought up a distortion of God's purpose for our lives. Man has now developed other uses for his life contrary to the original plan. We are comfortable combining characteristics of both natures at the same time. We do not completely deny the human nature, but we also want to please God. We are comfortable playing both sides, forgetting that with God, there is no sitting on the fence.

The tongue is used to bless God and also to curse men created in the image of that same God. Our tongues extol God's power and creative ability, yet at the same time condemning and destroying the visible proof of God's power. This abnormality is seen in different areas of our lives- we claim to follow God, yet our lives look nothing like people who even know God. We claim to be his disciples but we live nothing like people who have an idea of what God wants. We have mastered the art of deception, like the church in Sardis, known by men for being alive, yet to God, very dead.

Curses and blessings cannot proceed from the same source. We are children and products of a loving father, one from whom all good and perfect things come. Because He is the One who is the Righteous judge, he has the authority to dispense judgment and mercy as appropriate to all men, but he has not given the duty of judgment to any man. All he asks is that I live as his child, showing off his power, nature, love and mercy. My life must be a loud testimony of God in my life, one that shows that indeed, God is at work in me. I cannot combine both natures; I was not made to function that way.

This early morning, I take stock again: if I am to make withdrawals from the daily deposits in my life, what would they be? Would my life produce a stench, arising from deposits from the sinful nature, or would my life produce a sweet-smelling savour, obtained as a result of deposits of God in my life? My daily pursuits and priorities will provide answers to that question. His time of favour is here.