The Power of Womenনমুনা

The Power of Unseen Fruit

When it comes to bearing fruit, there is often a disconnect between what we expect and what we actually see.

We don’t often see as much fruit as we thought we would. Instead, we see a lot of weeds. And the fruit we do see turns out to be oranges when we were trying to grow apples! Some of the fruit turns out to be sour, bitter, or on the verge of rotting. Instead of blooming and blossoming with stories of life-change, our calling can be choked out by the weight of complaints and criticisms from the very people we long to serve.

When the weight of what you don’t see becomes too much to bear, consider the power of unseen fruit. How powerful is it to know that your life and ministry will be used by God to impact people farther and wider than you could ever see?!

I got a message from a woman I had never met saying a friend of hers had given her a devotional book I'd written. It came at just the right time in her life; somehow, God used my words in that book to encourage her in ways I will never fully know. If she hadn’t reached out to me, I would never have seen the fruit of my partnership with God in writing. But that fruit was thriving! Juicy, ripe, and nourishing to her soul.

How much more power is there in this unseen fruit than in what our limited perspectives can see! How much unseen fruit comes from sermons we don’t even remember preaching? From prayers we whisper throughout the day? From seemingly random interactions throughout our days?

There is a power in knowing you won’t see the fruit of all your labor.

If you are partnering with God to till the soil, there is an abundance of fruit that you will never see. And praise God for that! Praise God that He is using your gifts and your obedience to serve Him to do far more than all you could ask or imagine according to His power at work in you!

But even when we only see sour, nearly rotten fruit, it may not be a sign of failure. Bad fruit still makes good wine. The blessings and prosperity written about in Psalm 128–the fruit that comes from obedient labor–might be wine instead of grapes.

Prayer & Reflection

1. Consider the times you experienced growth because of someone else’s obedience. Are you their unseen fruit?
2. Do you gauge your success only by the outcome? What would it look like to use your obedience or steps along the journey instead of the results as a measure of success?

Written by Hannah Rowen Fry