S) "3 Then the Lord said to me, 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' And I said, 'Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness.'"
Jeremiah 24:3 (NASB)
O) Repeatedly, throughout the whole Bible, God makes it clear that with Him, there is no middle ground. Jeremiah was prophesying here, right at the time of the final exile, and the people were essentially judged by the LORD, divided into two groups. The group that left in the exile, were determined to be good fruit, and those who died from the sword, famine, and pestilence, were the bad fruits. While not everyone who was taken into exile was believing Jeremiah, seeking God, etc., God was making it clear that the people are either going to be with Him or against Him, they would either be redeemed/restored or destroyed.
A) There are no fence-riders in God's point of view. I cannot be half-committed with God. Knowing that, I need to be careful that I am not harboring things in my heart, things I don't want to fully surrender to Him. I need to be sure that I am not trying to hold onto any of my own selfish desires, and I need to react to my own sins with a severity that declares, "This is rotten fruit, so bad it cannot be eaten, or else it will result in my own death." I want to be good fruit, very good. It will only be through a complete, thorough surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ, that my life will have manifested good fruit in it.
P) Father, You are holy, and so I wish to be holy. You are good fruit, and so I wish to be good fruit. At times, it seems that "good" is simply not good enough to describe You, Father God. Help me to keep my focus on Your goodness, though, in all of its supremacy, so that I am reminded of Your very clear, well-defined nature. Expose any areas in my heart, that still need to bear good fruit to Your glory. In focusing on Your nature, and not just Your actions, I declare to love and serve You for who You are, not just what You do. Please continue to shape me, to be more and more like Your Son, the first fruits of Your goodness. All according to Your will alone. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.
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