Fruitful

Did you know that it’s possible to do good works and not be fruitful in doing so? How does this happen? It looks like this: we get what seems like a great idea at the time. Then we just set out to do it! We launch a website, an IG page, a logo, get a board of directors together, write a vision and mission statement, start collecting funds or making money from it. People begin to be blessed by it. We begin to feel good about it and then lo and behold, you somehow begin to get a strange feeling on the inside that God isn’t in it!  Now what? In this podcast, we will discuss what fruitfulness really means and how to recognize whether your latest idea or project is really from God.

Transcript

Did you know that it's possible to do good works and not be fruitful in doing so? How does this happen? Well, it looks something like this. Friends, we get what seems to be a great idea at the time. Then we just set out to do it. We launch a website, an IG page, a logo. We even get a board of directors together. If this is a nonprofit venture, we write a vision and mission statement. We start collecting funds or we begin making money from it, and people begin to be blessed by what we're doing, and we begin to get that feeling that, okay, I'm doing something good. But then lo and behold, you somehow begin to get a strange feeling on the inside that God isn't in this. Now what? In this podcast, we will discuss what fruitfulness really means and how to recognize whether your latest idea or project is really from God. 

Hey friends. I'm Latoya McBean Pompy, a wife, entrepreneur, nonprofit founder, attorney, and a disciple of Jesus Christ. Join me for another episode of I Am Wonderful to explore biblical truths from God's word, to strengthen us in our Christian faith and help us uncover the wonders that God has poured into us for others. Friends, I can't begin to tell you the number of times that I've actually stepped out on ideas only to end up burned, burned out, uninspired, and simply lost in the beginning. There's so much momentum and energy as a business owner. We want that energy, we want that momentum, and that my mind is then filled with all these next steps of who to talk to, how to implement this, and certainly what the end result would look like. Because who wants to start something without knowing what the end would actually look like? 

And once I start doing it, there might even have been a very strong sense of peace. I'm doing market research. I'm writing a business plan. Again, a website, business cards, IG and Facebook pages go up and I begin to consume a lot of content about this venture so that I could educate myself about it. But then all of a sudden I hit a brick wall. The ideas stop flowing. There's a lack of energy to do just the things that are required and necessary to do to move the project forward. Then one task after another are left undone. Then guilt kicks in because you've already began to speak to so many people about this or you're known for this thing. But on the inside you begin to wonder, well, is God really disappointed with me about this? Because certainly I thought this was God. I thought he wanted me to do this thing. 

And then you just simply stop doing it because you just don't have the energy or the ideas or willpower to even go any further with this. Now, what was God even in this thing that I was so passionate about, it started bearing some fruit. So God must have been involved, right? Well wrong, and we're going to examine what fruitfulness actually means. Well, the basic definition of being fruitful means to produce fruit or producing good of helpful results, being productive in the Greek, however, it means to bear fruit harvest proceeds or prophet. Now, Christ said this, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and even branches that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear even more fruit. So this idea of fruitfulness is important to him. Be profitable is important to Christ. So when we spend our precious and valuable time on ventures that have an appearance of fruitfulness that keeps us occupied and busy for a season, and then it turns out that it's not the kind of fruitfulness that Christ requires of us, we have missed the mark entirely. 

Now, let's look at Colossians one 10. Colossians one 10, which is where all of this is really coming from, says that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. This idea of fruitfulness is also found in Hebrews 1321 in which it talks about that the Lord Jesus Christ would make us complete in every good work to do His will working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So fruitfulness in God's eyes, guys, means asking yourself whether you are even doing the right thing right now, is it well pleasing in his eyes? If so, you will bear much fruit, the type of fruit that he's looking for, the type of profitability that he is looking for, and that type of profitability friend will or may look differently from how others view profitability and fruitfulness. 

Now, the three key takeaways that I want you to get from this short podcast, number one, examine every project that is on your plate right now. Examine those projects, guys, because if you will examine the projects that are on your plate, you'll then begin to question, well, is this really Christ? Is Christ really in this is something that is pleasing in his sight? If you don't know what could possibly be pleasing to him, well, you'll have to spend some time reading the Bible and praying and simply asking him about the venture or ventures that you're working on. Ask him. But when you do, ask him, guys, do not be afraid of the possibility that what you are spending the most significant time working on is actually the venture that he doesn't think you should be working on. And that's a scary thought. I know particularly for us, highly productive and achieving women of faith, business women, we want to ensure that certainly whatever we're doing is profitable. 

We're making money from it, we're impacting lives as well, and we feel good about it. But then what if that particular venture that is your baby, that you spent so many hours and days and months and years given life to, how in the world can we wrap our head around the idea that that particular venture could not be of God? And it's so scary to think about. Some people won't want to think about it, but in order to get to that place of being fruitful in every good work and while pleasing to Christ, we've got to examine every single venture, including the one that we spend the most time with. And we have to know that if God is leading us or leading you in a different direction, just know that he is faithful to bring you to an expected end. Once you make that about face number two, mark some things off your list and this won't be easy. 

Again, just like the first step, this is not going to be easy because this will mean shutting down some things that will need to be shut down. It also means maybe not being responsive to some people and individuals who have been chasing you down to work with you or to partner with you. You may have to close those doors, close those doors on opportunities for certain ventures that look amazing. And then guys, this is I think one of the scariest thoughts for us. Highly productive Christian women having more downtime in our schedule, in our daily schedule, having gaps of time where we were used to filling up our calendar. That's what we're so good at. We're so good at being productive. We're so good at staying busy and producing things, making money, earning a living and being just amazing women. And now the thought of freeing up your time. 

That could look a little scary for many, many of us. But this process will require us as we slow down and step back, it will require us to have faith knowing that God is going to speak to us during those slowdowns quote, and we will get through this and we will come out of this the most productive, the most fruitful. Because in that process of stepping back and being quiet and not having every minute of our day filled up with all these different tasks that just eats away at us every day, Christ will minister to us and we will begin to get those desires in our heart that are well pleasing to him for us to then execute on. So don't be afraid of this. Now, again, this is a very, very difficult process for us. Highly productive and high powered women of God. But if you skip over this step guys, you will continue in a lifestyle of unfruitfulness and you'll get up every single day to perform works that aren't pleasing in God's eyes. 

Now, how can a true disciple of Jesus Christ live with that? Number three, take one small step in the direction that he is speaking to you about the direction. Guys. Now this will be different for every one of us, right? But he has been speaking to us. God doesn't stop speaking. He's been speaking to you about what direction you should go in, what project you should start, and you know what that is. Take that one small step towards it. Well, perhaps for some of you, it's going to look like, well, if I take that one little baby step towards it, that's a complete 360 from what I'm doing, from what I'm known for, the things that I've already done, the work that I've already put out there, that this is like a complete about face. This is so different. How will others accept this? How will others receive this? 

How will others see me? Now, guys, if those are the thoughts and those will be the thoughts, those are the thoughts that I have. Those are the thoughts that I have as well. Now, in those thoughts, it's all about me, right? It's all about me. It's all about my image. It's all about how others see me and how I feel about it. It's all pride. At the end of the day, it's pride. And so through knowing that it's pride, we have to then lay that at the feet of Jesus and ask for forgiveness and set our gaze in our eyes on him, the author and finisher of our faith and not on us. We have to forget, as the apostle Paul said, forget those things that are behind and press on to that which is ahead. We have to look forward. We have to look upward and forward and in looking upward and forward, we will be, I think, I believe the most fruitful, the most satisfied, and the most well pleasing in the eyes of God. 

So don't be afraid to write that book about the works that God have done in your life over the years that He's telling you. Write this down. Make it plain. Encourage other people, or he might be telling you, well, shut down that business and start a ministry instead. Or he might saying to you, start a business and stop that ministry because even though it is a ministry, I didn't call you to that, I've called you to something else. Or he might be saying to you, I want you to move out from where you are and go to a place that I will show you, okay? And I will show you that later on. I'm not going to show you it now. Maybe not. I'm not going to show it to you now, but I will certainly show it to you. Trust me in this. Now, whatever he is saying to you today by faith, step out. Take that one small step towards it. You will not regret it because he is faithful and just to complete what he has started in your life.