Bearing and Bearing Fruit in 2026

“You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you.  This [is what] I command you: that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another.” (John 15:16-17, AMP)

Eastern Long Island has a few big apple orchards. Every autumn, they have u-pick harvest festivals, where you can go in and pick bushels of apples of all different kinds. Granny smith, pink ladies, macintosh, golden, red delicious. You name it, there are rows and rows of them.

When I was younger, it always used to bother me how many apples were on the ground. It felt wasteful. All these apples on the floor, rotting or going to the bugs. What use is that?

And then this week, I read a devotion from a book by Rachel Jankovic about bearing fruit. She talks about how outside the window of her childhood bedroom were a pair of apple trees. And how she would fall asleep to the thudding of apples falling off the tree in earnest. She made the connection that apple trees bear fruit whether or not there is someone to eat it. They were commanded by God to bear fruit, and golly, they bear it eagerly. 

Trees? You don’t have to tell them twice to bear fruit. The lack of people to receive that fruit is not their concern. But people? We are too set on productivity. We rarely create or toil when we feel there’s no point or no one to enjoy it.

But what if that’s not the point? What if, from a spiritual and personal standpoint, we were supposed to just bear fruit and go on bearing, regardless of whether it blesses people or lands on the ground like an apple in an orchard?

After all, in John 15, after Jesus talks about being the vine and His people being the branches bearing spiritual fruit, Jesus says that we– the Church– were chosen to be those branches. We were appointed, placed, and purposefully planted to bear fruit and keep on bearing. 

According to Jesus, that fruit isn’t light and momentary. It’s not bland and perishable. It’s lasting. It remains. We are to bear spiritual fruit out of the love that grows in us when we abide in Jesus– spending time with Him, searching for Him in His Word, and living our lives grounded in Him. 

What an encouragement as we stand on the cusp of a new year; when we set goals and resolutions and dreams for the year to come. So many times we set our minds to productive goals: to lose a certain amount of weight, to get a promotion, to save x amount of money. We quantify things. We are specific. We orient ourselves to gain, grow, and achieve.

But what if we set ourselves out to bear and keep on bearing? What if we resolved ourselves to be planted in the Savior, allowed Him to do the work in us that only His Holy Spirit can do, and bore fruit regardless of the recognition of what comes out of it?

And this doesn’t just have to be a spiritual thing. What if we resolved ourselves to learn something new, and then use that new skill to show God’s love to others? If you love to quilt, then quilt. Don’t worry about having someone in mind to give the work to, just do it. God will send someone your way when it’s done. If you’re learning to make sourdough, then make the bread. Pray while you stretch and fold it. Use it as a means to keep your hands busy while you meet with God in your idle, quieted mind.

Bear fruit the way an apple tree does; because even the apples that fall to the ground aren’t wasted. They feed other living things. They create an aroma that draws animals to enjoy the fruit, and they fertilize the ground around the trees for a whole new year of bearing and bearing and bearing.

God is not asking you to be productive. He’s not asking you to fill a quota or meet a deadline. He’s just asking you to be a branch that is firmly grafted into His vine. He’s asking you to be a branch that is heavy-laden with spiritual fruit. And the heaviest, healthiest of branches are the ones that heartily bear fruit, dropping it to the ground so that more can be made. 

Oh, to be a woman who simply wants to bear fruit for the King of kings and Lord of lords. I pray that this year, I could learn to bear that fruit, both spiritually and practically, whether someone is there to enjoy it or not. And I want the same for you, friends. I pray that this coming year is a year full of abiding in the Lord and bearing lasting fruit continuously. To be overflowing and rich in a lasting, enduring fruitfulness that gives glory to God and peace to your soul.