Fruitfulness at the Foot of the Cross

I think we often try to be fruitful on our own.

We try, and try, and try...and fail.

Then, we try again, and fail again.

Until, we give up.

Maybe that's where God sometimes wants us.

At a place where we surrender everything to Him and say, "I give up. I can't do this on my own."

The Holy Spirit is who produces fruit in our lives, not us.

At the point where we lay ourselves at the foot of the cross- in complete desperation- is the point where our lives will start to become fruitful.

 

1 Samuel 1:10, "Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord."

Hannah probably didn't see herself as being fruitful as she cried. Now, if she was like a lot of women in our day, she might have felt more fruitful if she was out serving in her community. However, in order for her to be fruitful, she had to get something off her chest. She had to lay her burden at the foot of the cross. God wants us to cry out to Him, even to cry out bitterly.

1 Samuel 1:15, "...but I am very discouraged, and I was pouring my heart to the Lord...for I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow."

Hannah was not ashamed to admit her discouragement, anguish and sorrow. She was secure enough to let her insecurities show. Sometimes, our insecurities hinder us from living out the fruit of the Spirit. If we don't take time to confess and sometimes weep before the Lord, our fruitfulness will turn into a cycle of stagnant worship, hard heartedness, and many attempts in the flesh to live out the gospel and only failing so many times that we ultimately give up. It is often at this place- this place of admiting we can't live out the gospel on our own- that we start to become fruitful.

God, for so long it seems I have lived out this cycle of trying to be fruitful in Christ on my own. I confess that I am in a state of desperation for your Holy Spirit to take over. I want to live a life of fruitfulness in the Spirit, and I cannot do it on my own. I lay myself and all my burdens at the foot of the cross---in exchange for the fruitfulness that comes from you, not from the flesh. In Jesus name, Amen.