🌿 Real Repentance = Real Fruit 🍇 | Matthew Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to help you live a life that bears real fruit today.
2. 📅 January 16, 2026
Today’s passage reminds us:
True repentance produces visible fruit—not empty words or religious status.
3. ✝️ Matthew 3:1-10
John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, calling people to repent because the kingdom of heaven was near, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. He baptized many in the Jordan as they confessed their sins. When Pharisees and Sadducees came, John warned them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, not rely on heritage, for judgment was near.
4. 📖 Key Verse
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (v. 10).
5. 📝 Reflection
In John the Baptist’s time, Jews believed they didn’t need baptism because they were God’s chosen people. Baptism was for Gentiles converting to Judaism. Yet John called Jews to be baptized, for the kingdom of heaven was near. They needed to repent and bear fruit, or they would face God’s coming wrath.
Though Jews were God’s people, eternal life through Jesus Christ was not automatically theirs. The kingdom of heaven is not open indiscriminately. Only those who believe in God’s only Son will not perish but have eternal life (cf. John 3:16).
Dear friends, do you confess and believe Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord? If so, that’s wonderful! But as those saved, we must bear fruit. Today, choose holiness over sin. Forgive instead of hate, love others, and share the gospel. Believing in God’s Son is not just words—it’s a life that bears fruit.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- Where do I need to show repentance through action?
- What fruit is missing in my life right now?
- How can I live out my faith in a way that others see Jesus?
7. 🙏 Prayer
Lord, help me live a life that shows true repentance.
Teach me to bear fruit that honors You—through my words, actions, and relationships.
May my faith be more than words; let it be seen in how I love and serve today.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ”
4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:1-10, ESV).
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