Matthew 21:19<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, \u2018Let no fruit grow on you ever again.\u2019 Immediately the fig tree withered away.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus is hungry for things of substance. Jesus is tired of superficial things around our lives. Jesus knows that there are leaves on trees, but He\u2019s not hungry for leaves. Jesus wants more. He wants so much more from our lives and our ministries. He wants tangible evidence of God\u2019s working in our lives and not the leaves of superficial living and humanistic common-sense activities. Jesus deserves more and is demanding more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s therefore not engage our time with issues that will only produce leaves. We need to reevaluate what we are, and one of the most critical questions to ask is this: \u201cdo our lives, and activities bring joy to Jesus?\u201d In an age of multiplied activities that have no real eternal impact, we must each evaluate our daily schedules to ensure that our energies are not spent on things that Jesus has no interest in. Can you hear the voice of Jesus saying, \u201cI am happy with your fruit!\u201d? If not, stop and re-evaluate your priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLord Jesus, I don\u2019t want to waste my life on things that You cannot commend. Order my steps as You order my heart. May my life produce fruit that will bring You joy. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 21:19 \u201cAnd seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, \u2018Let no fruit grow on you ever again.\u2019 Immediately the fig tree withered away.\u201d Jesus is hungry for things of substance. Jesus is tired of superficial things around our lives. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Matthew.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4250,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248\/revisions\/4250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}