Refiner's Fire

Luke 6:43-45
"For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart."

The world is caught up in performance, whether it is for your boss, your friends, or your god. We perform daily to please those around us, we perform at work to please our boss and we perform at home to please our loved ones. Performance is not bad in moderation and under the right motives. Do you please because you want acceptance? Do you please to earn something? Do you please because you want to feel good? Or do you please out of love for the other?

Too often religions are caught up in performance-based faith, and too often, I find myself doing this as well. It was how I was raised in the world and how I was raised in the church. I perform to please and to feel good about myself. All false religions believe in some sort of performance whether it is to earn a spot in Heaven or to please God so He will bless you. This verse is not saying to jump on the performance treadmill to please God. This verse is teaching us that it is from our heart that the mouth speaks. It is from our heart that we do good works, which we perform because of the Spirit within us.
Those who do not have the Lord as their Savior have a bad heart, and those who are children of God have a good heart, a new heart.

Ezekiel 36:26,27 “26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

It is out of our new heart that we do any good; it is because of God and what He has done that we are able to perform. It is the Spirit of God which fills the Christians heart and it is from a person’s mouth one can tell what fills their heart. First, I would think we must know what we believe before we jump into performing, we should take time to rest in the Lord and to renew our minds and hearts (Romans 12:2). Learn from God before trying to do so much. It reminds me of Mary and Martha in the Bible, Martha was so busy with doing that she forgot to just rest at Jesus’ feet. There is a balance to performing and resting, and too often, we are caught up in performance because that is what the world requires of us. When was the last time you truly rested in the Lord?

Matthew 15:8-9 Talks about how people can draw near to God with their lips and mouths but their hearts are far from Him. You walk into a church you hear people praising God, reading the Bible and praying. But when they talk you hear things that contradict the Gospel message, that is when you know that their hearts are far from Him. They are so performance based they have forgotten that salvation is about what God has done for us, not what we do for God. Or the opposite one may spew out all the right doctrine but their life never shows it. They do it to please others instead of please God, their words are empty without belief, without heart. Most modern day churches are all about the Christian performance treadmill instead of the Christian mercy of rest. God showed us mercy by bringing His One and only son to take the punishment for our sins so that we can be with God for all eternity. God shows us mercy daily in our lives, we do not have to perform for God to be pleased with us or to love us or forgive us. For we have a new heart, we have Christ residing in us and God is well pleased with His Son. Our Father doesn’t require us to perform good works, He shall work them in us and through us. God tells us to rest in Him, that His word is near us, in our mouths and in our hearts (Romans 10:6-9). All we must do is allow that good fruit to produce more not worry so much about producing the fruit ourselves for that is the Spirits job in us. God is at work in us, He doesn’t lay dormant and wait for us to perform. God knows we need His help and He is readily there for us always. The Spirit shall move us to obey our God because we are saved. We do not obey to be saved, and we do not obey because we are told to, but we obey God because He first loved us.

So many people around me live for themselves, their hearts are hardened to our Father God. They do not know how to care for others because they do not understand the love we do. They do not understand hurting people or how to help them, they are not going to be a good Samaritan because they have no good in them. All their acts are selfish only to please themselves, so often I wish I could surround myself with Gods people those who have good in their hearts. Whose light shines in a darkened world, who obey God out of love. Love being the center of their life and what they do.

Im going to end with some Bible verses I know this is long, I just felt passionate about this verse today and it got me thinking about many other things. The main one being what do I fill my heart with? Am I resting in the Lord daily or am I worried about doing what is pleasing to Him? And do I realize the power I have within’ me, do I realize that I have a good heart and from it flows good fruit? This week I want to rest in God and in His Truths alone. This week I want to be more concerned about what God thinks of me than what mere men think of me.

Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
2 Corinthians 1:9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 3:3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.