Daily writing prompt

What were your parents doing at your age?

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Age is merely a number. It is the heart that counts. It’s inside our heart that we discover and experience the best part of being alive.

God’s plan is to build His vineyards and His orchards within you — His living presence not made by human hands or human effort — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The more you allow God to plant and cultivate His orchards and vineyards inside of you (John 15:1-17) and continually water them with the rivers of His Spirit flowing through your innermost being (John 7:38-39) the more they will produce a thrilling abundance of spiritual fruit.

Pick and enjoy the fruit of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) throughout each day. Share it with everybody you meet. Don’t harden your heart until it rots within you. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)

The dividing line between people who are pursuing goodness and people who aren’t isn’t between those who proclaim Christian values and those who don’t. It’s between those whose heart is hard and proud and those whose heart is humble and tender.

The Pharisees in the Bible proclaimed biblical values but their heart was so hard that they wanted Jesus killed. Meanwhile many tax collectors and sinners were humbly and gratefully changing their behaviors to follow and obey Him.

Spiritual drift leaves Christians assuming that they are close to God even when their heart has floated far from Him. (Matthew 15:8-9) It’s subtle yet very deceptive.

“Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19)

When Christians focus on “the worries of this life,” “on wealth,” and on their own opinions and “desires” the seed of God’s word is choked and becomes unfruitful. We need to turn our focus away from politics, prosperity, and self-driven desires and totally devote our attention, obedience, and adoration to the living resurrected Jesus Christ!

Jesus rose, not so people can sit in Sunday morning rows and smell like religious roses, but so that we can be set free from and forgiven for our sins, be daily empowered by His Spirit, and follow and obey Him with a never-ending heart-to-heart connection with Him and with each other. If God could create the world and everything it surely, He can actively and directly control a church service! Let Him. (Rom 8:14)