How God Can Help You Shed the Negative and Enjoy the Fruit of Your Life

Have you ever seen a Clementine tangerine? Have you tasted one? Clementine tangerines are small, juicy orange fruits that hail from the far off coast of Spain. Juicy little bits of citrus goodness.

I love how God can take something simple and reveal a life lesson. And He did just that one day after I purchased a box of those little orange gems, showing me three simple truths about how He relates to us and how we can respond to Him.

1. Picked. On purpose and for a purpose.

As I held a Clementine in my hand, turning it this way and that, admiring its shading and hue, I thought to myself, "You know, this Clementine was made for a purpose. And in order for it to get into my hands, it had to be picked." Someone, or something, plucked it off a tree in Spain. It was chosen, so to speak, for a greater purpose than remaining on its branch. Why grow them just to look at them hanging on the tree? That just seems silly - they were grown for a purpose and they are picked specifically to do what they were created to do.

Chosen. Then enjoyed! Savored. Consumed.

Likewise, we have been made for a purpose. In his book, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren states:

You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it...You are alive because God wanted to create you!

In Psalms, it says "The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me." (Psalm 138:8, NIV) You know, I have no problem believing that little fruit was grown on purpose for a purpose. But I often struggle with who I am, why I am here.

The fact is, God not only chose to make me (to make you!), He chose me, and you, to be His. Just like those Clementines I purchased were picked to be enjoyed and savored, God picked us for His pleasure.

Ephesians 1:5 (The Message) says, "Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)".