Read: Matthew 7:15–20

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit….You will know them by their fruits.  Matthew 7:18 & 20 

Most of us are filled with good intentions. We don’t begin our day planning how we can cut corners, lie, or fill people with unreasonable expectations. Most of us start our days hopeful that we can live honestly, truthfully, and with integrity. But as the day wears on we are pressed, pushed, and pressured in a thousand different directions. By day’s end we have said things we didn’t mean, we have made promises we don’t know how we will keep, and we have made commitments that are not in line with our best intentions.

The good news—and the bad news—is that intentions, expectations, and commitments mean nothing. Our ideas and instincts do not amount to anything until we put them into action. We are not judged by what we thought about doing or by what we intended to do or by what we planned to refrain from doing. We are known not by the promise of our lives but by the product of our lives. In the end, we are judged by what we have produced—our fruits. Did we produce good fruit or bad fruit?

What good thought can you manifest in a good act this week?

Lord, I am indeed filled with good intentions, but I find I am often hard pressed to follow through on them. It is not so much that I feel like a bad person, but I do feel like a person who thinks better than I act. Help me to produce good fruit. Help me to convert good intentions into good actions. Help me to build a legacy of good work in Your world. In Jesusname, I pray. AMEN.