Remember everything came to you from God!

Matthew 21:17 – 45

Whether you know it or not you have been given an abundance of gifts and talent. God has given your personality to you, it may have been shaped by events in your life but the base line of your personality is a gift. Every marvelous gift we have been given, God is expecting you to use, that is why He gave them to you. These gifts will bring you great joy, peace and love among other things. They will help fulfill you as a person.

The parable of the fig tree is an example of what happens when we refuse to recognize and use our gifts. Jesus looked for some fruit from a seemingly beautiful tree and saw none so He cursed the tree. I know that seems harsh but for us to be given such great gifts and to not use them already curses us. Part of God’s plan for all of our lives requires us to use what He has given us if not then are lives will be filled with frustration and failure, we were designed to use the gifts to fulfill our destiny. At first glance what Jesus did to the fig tree may seem harsh but not bearing fruit had already cursed the tree.

The illustration was somewhat of a set up for His next two discussions. The Pharisees, who should have known better where blessed with a tremendous depth of understanding and yet rather than using that to really understand God’s heart they only felt threatened by Jesus. There is a challenging thought, those claimed to know God most felt threatened by Him. Fruit according to Paul is love joy, peace, patience, and so on. They were well read but refused to understand, were greatly gifted with insight but refused to open their hearts. It is easy to do when we lose relationship and get into religion. The gifts in our lives will lead us always into deeper relationship with the Lord and if continuously used and if we remain grateful will keep us free of religion and always open to relationship.

It is easy to think that what we have is ours. It is easy to get caught into a trap of in gratitude or to lose sight of how much we have been given. In gratitude and selfishness causes us to wither and die from the inside out. Everything we have came from God and we are only here by His love and grace and will only bear all of the fruit we are to bear and reap the benefit from it by recognizing His great love and gifts that He has given us.