“How was your day?”

“Fine.” (no major bad things happened to me)

Jesus comments about the fruit of our lives causes us to re-evaluate the way we measure success. Jesus’ enemies were seen as very pious, and yet they were not very successful by Jesus’ measurement of success. He told us to look closely at our heart and the fruit of our lives, because the two go hand in hand. I think most people think their hearts are good–like the Pharisees–they think they are doing the right things, but if they would look at the fruit of their lives, they would realize that they were wrong. Good motives and a good heart don’t always translate into good fruit. Success is both a good heart and a good strategy for living it out.

Ask yourself:

What good things have poured out of my life today? (Love? Joy? Kindness? Patience? etc)

How many people have I helped in transforming their lives?

I think those two questions might allow us to measure success in a more accurate way…