Preserved

Psalm 25:21 “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for You”

It’s that time of the year, when the fruit of the harvest is being processed and jarred for keeping. The making of preserves or canning as some call it requires a careful hand in cleaning, preparing, and eventually pressurizing the jars so that they are sealed for a later time to be enjoyed. If the process of preparation is not completed in proper order, the jars don’t seal and the growth of bacteria will ruin the batch and leave the preserves corrupted.

Did you know the Lord is preserving His people?

God’s process of preserving His people is spiritual in nature with an eye toward the goal of keeping the fruit of His labor until the end. Believers are the fruit of His labor, grafted into His vine, receiving the necessary spiritual life giving nutrients to produce good fruit. The care that God takes in His people requires watering, pruning, and protection against anything that will harm His own.

John 15:4-8 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.“

Believers can only produce fruit from the labor that God has done in them. They don’t produce fruit in themselves, by their own strength, or independent of God’s power. They have nothing good in themselves, so for any good to come from them it must be the Spirit of the Lord that indwells and produces the good fruit. It is the water of God’s Spirit that continually refreshes and gives life, it is the pruning away of past sin that must be removed so the new life can spring forth. As the new growth happens, the fruit of repentance produces good works that are manifest in and through them to the world….the Lord then receives the glory which is the fruit of His labor.

Everything that is good comes from God. If you want to produce good fruit, you must draw near to Him and allow Him to work through you.

The Harvest

Hebrews 12:11 “For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

God disciplines by the pruning we see occurring in His people. Discipline is not pleasant but is necessary for growth. Everytime we act unrighteously, the Lord disciplines us and brings us back into alignment with His purpose. Sometimes trial also brings discipline, not because of sin but because He loves His people.

Unrighteousness is sin. The world grows wild before Him and so He plucks out of this world vessels He has called to discipline and train to grow in accordance with His purposes. The more people He grafts into His vine, the more His Kingdom grows. In God’s Kingdom there is order, purpose, and unity. The more His church embraces His plans, the easier it is to move forward according to His purposes.

What fruit does the Lord produce through His labor?

Galatians 5 shows us the fruit that the Spirit produces in His people:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-Control

Vs. 24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.”

We can measure our spiritual walk to this list and see what fruits are being produced in us. If we lack any of these, you can be rest assured the Lord will continue to prune until we do produce them. God’s people take on the attributes of Christ as they are formed like Him.

If He has grafted you into His tree of life then you represent Him to the world, and you are meant to produce His fruit. The good seed by which God planted in you was by His purpose. If you hear the Word of God and do not produce spiritual fruit, then there is a problem. If the seed has fallen on the rocky soil of a hard heart or the cares of this world choke out His Word and make it unprofitable, you will never produce the fruit of righteousness.

Matthew 3:10 “The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

People may try to grow apart from Him but will never flourish. This is His garden, His world, He has made it and anything that is not part of Him will be cast out. The fires of Hell burn hot with the rotten wood of unrighteousness.

Isaiah 60:21 “Also your people shall all be righteous; They shall inherit the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified.

Every seed that lands on good soil, produces good fruit, the fruit is then harvested, crushed, and used in His Kingdom.

The Preparation

The children of Israel were a people that God used to display His glory to the world, even today we see God using them to accomplish His purpose. The preparation required to make them ready to bear such an honor required testing and trials, a process that was difficult but necessary for them to be made ready.

We have reaped the fruit of this blessing by the Word of God that was produced through them. A legacy of God’s faithfulness resonates in history through this small nation and they remain today God’s timepiece for events that will unfold in the end.

We can take the lessons from how God worked in them by how He works in us today. It is His vine that we have been grafted into, the lineage of God’s people who will carry forth into eternity.

When Israel was in bondage and slavery in Egypt, the Lord sent Joseph to preserve them until their appointed time:

Genesis 45:7 “And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”

Now, His people who have been grafted into the vine are preserved by Jesus Christ until the appointed time.

John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”

You see, once you are His, you are His forever. You are the product of His work, the love that he has invested into you, and no one will ever be able to corrupt what He has done.

The Product

Every good work the Lord does, ends well.

You must trust Him through the process, it may not be easy but it is necessary. In the end, you’ll see what He has produced, you will rejoice in the fruit of His labor, and you will be able to partake of the bounty that is only reserved for those in His KIngdom.

1 Peter 1:3-9 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.”

We have been given such a great hope, abide in Him, allow Him to do His work and you will see the product of all that He has brought forth.