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Lifelong Productivity by Martin Wiles

Spring. Trees budding. Flowers blooming. Freshly plowed fields embedded with fruit-bearing seed. Youthful vigor. The sun’s warming rays. Life at its finest. Invincibility. 

Summer. Unbearable heat. Incipient fruit dangling from trees awaiting fall. Busyness. Too much to do and too little time to do it in. Misplaced priorities. Mislaid focus. Life is good.


Fall. Harvest. Leaves showing their true colors, falling and littering the ground, leaving behind bountiful fruit dangling on cringing limbs. Life slows. Priorities are reconsidered. Children are grown and gone. Aches and pains. 

Winter. Barrenness. Empty fields and gardens. Bare trees. Brown grass. Ominous winds and diving temperatures. Snow and ice. Glowing fireplaces. Sickness. Disease. Dying spouses. Dying friends. Dying relatives. Life grinds to a halt.

The seasons of life come and go with rapid haste and a mind of their own, but the psalmist proposes the possibility of fruit at each stage. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season (Psalm 1:3 NLT).

Lifelong productivity is attainable by engaging in what produces fruit initially-God’s Word. Sinking our roots into its life-giving principles yields fruit from youth until death. They remind us about what’s spiritually healthy and unhealthy. Wisdom that guides us through the changing seasons and their accompanying challenges is uncovered. As winter approaches, poor health may prevent us from doing all we once did, but even then we can still produce fruit for God’s kingdom through intercessory prayer and by using technology’s advancements.  A press of the “enter” key allows us to touch the world. No matter what season you’re living in, bear fruit for God.

Max Lucado said; If we live our lives this way, then we can…enter into our final years with the assurance of knowing that life was well spent and that heaven is but a wink away. (On the Anvil p. 163)

Prayer: Lord, You have created us to bear fruit throughout every season of life. Infiltrate our roots, branches and leaves with the required nutrients that will yield glorious fruit for Your kingdom and magnify Your name across the world.

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