Reading your Bible for Today July 22

July 22: Mark 11:12-14

KJV Key Verse: Mark 11:12
12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:

Devotion:
One side of Jesus that we often forget is how He was perfectly human! As He returned to Jerusalem, He hungered – His body was quite normal and required food just like the rest of us! He lowered Himself down to our infirmity so He would know exactly what we went through. He did this so He could pay for our sins through His “humanness”. He was a man who was so intent on getting God's work done the right way, He often went without food.

But through every one of His actions, we see God glorified. Even when it comes down to looking for a bit of food – He makes sure He takes every opportunity to lift up God. But He was also just. He went to the fig tree expecting it to have fruit, after all, it did have leaves. What He found was a barren tree and He sentenced it to perpetual barrenness. There is coming a day when everyone will be facing Him in judgement and He will be just as perfect in His judgement then as He was with the fig tree.

The barren fig tree can be looked upon as a hypocrite. The hypocrite shows off like a fruit tree showing off its leaves, but bears no fruit. The disappointment for anyone who reaches out to that fruit tree for help is echoed in the disappointment to anyone who looks up to the hypocrite for help – they seek, expecting, and find a void. What Christ is looking for is a fig tree which is going to give fruit – He expects us to be able to bear fruit!

Many of us falter when we come to giving off fruit – mostly because we think we cannot do it. But as soon as we are willing to fully depend on God, then we will be able to bear fruit for Him. Just like a fig tree depends on a hidden water resource to bring forward it's fruit, we depend on our God to bring forward fruit. If a fig tree were to be planted next to a sour water supply, I don't think I would want to eat its fruit. But planting a tree next to a sweet water supply will make sure it has good fruit. If we want to bear God's fruit, we need to make sure we keep close to Him through effective prayer. That effective prayer will ensure we can do more than we had ever thought possible!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like giving bad things to friends?

Do you depend fully on Christ to allow your fruit to grow?