January 10, 2026 Devo

January 10th, 2026

Powerful Words from the Prophets
“He plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines. In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter.” – Isaiah 5:2 (NLT)
“Fruit Or Nuts?”

I’m really excited for this summer. We’re going to be doing something at our church that we’ve never done before. Our children, youth, and adults will all be studying the same Bible topic: The Fruit of the Spirit, based on Galatians 5. On the one hand, I’m excited because I love that entire family units will all be looking at the same things. Hopefully, that will make for some good family conversations around those verses. But the other reason I’m excited is that I think there is a great need to talk about what the “fruit” of Christ-followers’ lives ought to look like. Because I think the world sees more “nuts” than fruit when they look at us!
When I read our verse for today, that’s what hit me. As the people of God, we really haven’t changed all that much in the last 3000 years. God uses the image of a vineyard to help the people see what they had become. His desire for them was that they would be like sweet, juicy grapes. Fruit that would reflect the care and hard work of the planter. Fruit that would be attractive, tasty, and make people want to know the farmer’s secret. Fruit that could be a stark contrast to such a sour-tasting world. But they weren’t. Look at the word that’s used to describe them. “Bitter.” After all His hard work, after all of His care, after the Planter had done everything He could do, the lives of His People left as bad a taste in the mouth of God as the pagans in the countries around them. It broke God’s heart.
I was hit with a wave of sadness as I read this. I found myself praying, “Lord, please don’t let my life be bitter! Let my life be filled to overflowing with the sweet fruit of who you are.” What is that fruit? Galatians 5 says that it’s “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.” Those are the seeds of His Spirit that the Lord has planted within us. I found myself today asking God if that’s the fruit that other people around me are seeing. I asked myself if that’s the kind of fruit HE sees. I challenge you today to ask God that same question for yourself. Be His amazing fruit. There are enough bitter nuts out there already! That’s God’s Word for you today.