Fruit Fresh

Do you remember a product that was sold that would allow you to help

 keep your recently pealed or sliced fruit fresh?

     It was called called “Fruit Fresh” and it worked…but it only worked for fruit that was just pealed or sliced into pieces.  You couldn’t take already rotten fruit and add “fruit fresh” to make the fruit fresh again.  That might be the case for apples, oranges, or bananas – but in the case of your heart – God has a solution.

     In Ezekiel 11:19-20 God was to provide a Heart Fresh.  He knows our hearts and He also is well aware that our hearts might not be as fresh as they should be.  Read the passage below and try to visualize this exchange where God will provide a new heart.

¹⁹ I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them;

I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

²⁰ Then they will follow  my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 
They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 11:19-20

     You might consider this passage whenever you feel there isn’t much hope for the condition of your heart.  Maybe you have arrived at a major intersection of your life – where you are in need of a new heart, a new beginning – a time when some fruit fresh could do some restoration.

⁴³ “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.

⁴⁴ Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from

thornbushes, or grapes from briers. ⁴⁵ A good man brings good things out of the

good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil 
stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Luke 6:43-45

     I am very familiar with the passage above.  It has encouraged me and at times convicted me.  In many ways it can be supportive of a person whose heart is healthy and right with God, but it may also convict a person whose heart isn’t so healthy.  I would be concerned about my personal journey with God if I were to read that passage and not feel anything.  But even when or if that is the case with you – Jesus can do for you what no other person can do.  You can’t whip out a credit card  or a checkbook and try and buy a new heart.  As Ezekiel reminds us-- it comes down to God being the source of a new heart.

     Now why does this matter?  Simple – the type of fruit you produce in your life depends upon the type of heart you have.  If you are feeding your heart the Word of God on a daily basis then He is able to give you a new heart.  If you have a heart after God’s own heart then others will quickly know who you belong to.

     Friend, let’s take a look at our fruit that we are producing in our lives.  Is it fresh fuit?  Does it appeal to the eye?  Or has it gone rotten?  Do we need to have Heart Fresh – a new heart- a new heart for a new beginning that only God can provide?

        Ripe and ready to be harvested for His Kingdom,

           Rick