Elders Producing Fruit

I think I would like to focus this ‘Thought’ on those of my peers who are say, sixty plus years of age. We may have aches, pains, recognize we can no longer do the things we once could, true. Still we should be and can be producing good fruit. Scriptures speak of fruit in several places. I think primarily of Galatians chapter five and St. John chapter fifteen. We might add a fruit not mentioned in either of these two Scriptural passages: That is the fruit of ‘thankfulness’. It is easy to focus on the things we see as “wrong” and not be thankful. But if I dare ask you to make another list after last week’s ‘Thought’, I would propose we remember “God is good – all the time” and list all the things He has done for us. I remember a little thing “Chuck” Swindoll said, “I wake up in the morning and dust off my wits: pick up the paper and read the ‘obits’. If my name is not there, then I know I’m not dead. So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.” Instead of going back to bed, we look out a window and see God’s handiwork. We have a lovely view: I see flowers, trees, animals, birds, depending on the time of day, children playing, manicured lawns, and I am thankful and can begin praising and thanking God for this is the beginning of a new adventure. I look across the breakfast table and see and feel love. On that table are a Bible and devotional books. I can be thankful I can see and can read and understand the thoughts of authors I have never met but who have also met God. I am thankful we can pray and express our concerns for people we know and love. We dare to include people we don’t know in our prayers. We know God knows and loves them. We are amazed and thankful God knows 330,000,000 Americans and 7+ billion people around the world. We are thankful He not only knows them and can keep track of the hairs on their heads; He knows the challenges they will face today. He waits for their prayers for His help in facing these challenges. He waits to execute His plan for them today. Thankfully, He also has a plan for me and waits to put that plan into action for me. I am not only thankful, I am amazed. What an awesome God we serve. Or, at least we could serve, and I hope you are willing to do so. I am also thankful for you my readers and my friends. Just now I see, in my mind, faces of you who have supported me and told me you are praying for me: Such beautiful people surround us. I know there are those who do not see many folks in a day, but I want to encourage you to express your thanks to God for those who are a part of your history, your present, and even for those yet unborn who are in your future. That stimulated me to express my thanks to God, for some of those in my past, in my present and in my future. God is sooooooo very good. I am sorry, these thoughts of mine rambled away from my primary subject. I really did want to focus on ‘Elders bearing Fruit’ Still, I am not sorry I got thoughts of thankfulness down on my paper. So, I will give us some Scriptures that encourage us to express our thanks. Hopefully, I will be able to continue at the computer and give us fruit to consider. Closing ‘Thought’: “I’ve heard some folks say, “I can’t do anything, anymore but pray.” Let me remind you, Frank Laubach said in his book, “Prayer is the mightiest force on earth.” He’s right because prayer connects us to the mightiest force in the universe; GOD!

Scriptures to Read:

Psalm 100:1-5

Psalm 103:1-9

Psalm 103:10-22

Psalm 104:14-29

Psalm 106:1-5

Psalm 148:1-7

Psalm 150:1-6