Inspection

Jesus said, “Live in me. I am The Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with Me,
the relation is intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated from Me, you can’t produce a thing. Make yourselves at home in My love…This is my command: Love one another the way I love you. This is the very best way to love…put your life on the line for your friends. Remember, I chose you, and put you in the world to bear good fruit. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to Me, He gives you. But remember the root command: Love one another.” John 15

“People do what you inspect. Not what you expect.”

I heard this quote sitting in a brainstorming session when I was 22 years old.

I hated it.

I hated it for several reasons…

One, I didn’t want the responsibility of ‘inspecting’ people’s work. I was young, and I didn’t see any benefit in my ‘overseeing’ someone else’s work. If I was the oversight then I was responsible, and I didn’t want to be responsible.  It took a while for me to understand that I was going to be held responsible, whether I agreed to the system or not.

Two, at that point in my young and naive life, I thought that everyone had been raised by my parents and thus they did what they were expected to do. Little did I know…

Three, and most important, I didn’t want to participate in a system where I was going to be subjected to this kind of scrutiny. I was young, prideful, and I did NOT want to be inspected by any one in any way.

The Bible teaches us to “not judge, less we end up being judged ourselves.” (Matthew 7).

For years, I used this verse to opt out of being ‘inspected’ or inspecting anyone else.

I mis-defined ‘judge’. I thought judging and inspecting were the same thing. They are not.

One day I read Jesus words, “A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. You can identify a tree by its fruit and you can identify people by their actions.”  (Matthew 7).

Jesus says the sign that we are ‘in Him’ is, we will bear good fruit.

We are not supposed to judge.

But, we ARE supposed to be fruit inspectors.

“You will know them by their fruit,” Jesus said in
Matthew 7.

What type of fruit are you producing?

Good or bad? There’s really no in between.

Question: Do you have anyone in your life who inspects your fruit?

We NEED people in our lives whom we trust to help us see our blind spots.

Who is this person, or people, for you?

Right now, thank Father for them.

Don’t have this person?

Ask Father to give you one.

You have been prayed for today.