Start Producing - Stop Subtracting

What if we measured our spiritual growth by what we've begun, instead of what we quit?

Too often, we focus on subtraction. The sins we’ve stopped and the habits we’ve dropped. But Jesus wasn’t impressed with a leafy tree that lacked fruit. His Spirit isn’t just looking for what we’ve removed. It's interested in what we’re producing.

Try this for a week: Don’t track what you avoided. Track what the Spirit planted.

What We Begin, Not What We Quit

In Mark 11, Jesus approaches a fig tree that looks full and healthy from a distance. But when he gets close, it’s all leaves. There isn't any fruit. And even though it wasn’t fig season, He still curses the tree.

Jesus’ actions might seem harsh when connected with Mark’s statement in the previous verse. It was not the season for figs (Mark 11:13). Why would Jesus curse a fig tree that wasn’t supposed to have figs anyway?

It was the Monday of Holy Week, only days before Jesus would gather with His disciples for Passover. According to our calendars, it was late March or early April, the time when the first figs might appear. The full harvest, which Mark referred to, would not come until June. But a tree already in leaf should have borne the early figs. Jesus approached with expectation, but His hands came back empty. And so He spoke words of judgment over that tree: May no one ever eat fruit from you again (Mark 11:14).

It’s a strange story until you see the point.

We often mistake spiritual maturity for subtraction. We brag about what we’ve stopped doing. We post spiritual “before and after” shots. But that fig tree wasn’t judged for its past. It was judged for what it failed to produce.

Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Notice the focus: not on what’s pruned or cut, but what grows.

This week, challenge yourself:

1. Don’t just think about what you’re resisting. Notice what you’re becoming.

2. Ask daily: What new fruit is forming in me today?

3. Replace guilt-based goals with growth-based ones.

4. When you pray, ask: What is Christ making of me?

Remember: the Spirit isn’t just a weed killer. He’s a fruit grower.

Let your life be full of the Spirit, just be free of sin.

In Him,

Greg