If you hate the fruit, cut the tree down

Lord of mercy! This was how I felt after a conversation i held with two people today. One of those conversations that start and then a few minutes later you wish you had walked out of the room before it began. Man must now even be discerning enough to know when something is about to happen...lol. Anyway, somewhere along the conversation, I had to keep quiet as I realised we were not going to agree. Although I cannot write the details of the conversation it made me wonder on some things. Sometimes we encounter some attitudes, habits and opinions that make you want to scream. Sometimes, we even observe some in ourselves that make us cringe. Those things that make you ask "why are you saying, behaving or acting like this?!"  I think even Jesus encountered some of our funny thought pattern. You may have heard Him ask his disciples questions like "where is your faith?" or "do you still not understand?" and "how could you not know I was not talking about bread!" lol and to Peter "get behind me Satan!"

I have often found myself trying to correct some of my bad habits or to try to help others see that a behaviour is not appropriate however today, a phrase that rocked my thinking a few years ago popped right back in my head "if you hate the fruit, cut the tree down." You cannot get rid of a bad habit by dealing with that habit. You need to go to the root of it. Every wrong thinking is attached to a wrong belief. Renew your mind says Romans 12:2.

Many of the things we deal with in our daily lives are the result of a wrong belief  system. Our thoughts are like trees growing in our minds, and given the right conditions, they would bear fruit – in our decisions and attitudes to people and to life. If a tree is bad, the fruit will be bad. The problem is not the fruit but the tree. Many times, we want to deal with the fruits by plucking them off the tree but we forget that someday, given the right conditions and in the right season the tree will blossom again and those fruits will come out.  Have you ever wondered why we are asked to crucify the flesh? There is no cure for the flesh, it has to be killed. Unless you pull a tree down, it will bear fruit every year. Now imagine how annoying that would be lol.

My conclusion after my discussion? The word of God is my plumb line. 

Make a tree bad and the fruit will be bad, make a tree good and you will enjoy the lovely fruit or the drink from it. So if you hate the fruit, pull the tree down.

...Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God - Romans 12:2