The thorns represent the pain, rejection, opposition, misunderstanding, or difficult circumstances surrounding your life. A thorny tree is not an attractive or comfortable thing to approach. People may avoid it, criticize it, or even hate it because of its thorns.
Yet you bear fruit.
The tree’s value is not determined by how people treat it. It is determined by the fruit it produces.
Lord Jesus said: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).
And apostle Paul describes the fruit produced by the Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22,23).
You may experience rejection, but continue loving.
You may be misunderstood, but continue walking in truth.
You may be opposed, but continue doing what is right.
You may be wounded, but do not stop producing good fruit.
The thorns do not cancel the fruit.
A person can have thorns around them without becoming thorny within them.
People may hurt you but you don’t have to become hateful.
People may reject you but you don’t have to reject everyone.
People may speak against you but you don’t have to answer evil with evil.
People may fail to recognize your fruit but God sees it.
Our Lord Jesus Himself experienced rejection:
“He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).
Yet His life produced the greatest fruit the world has ever known.
You might be hated by everyone.
Lord Jesus warned His followers that obedience to Him can bring opposition:
“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22).
Do not measure your calling by people’s acceptance of you.
Sometimes obedience to God will make you unpopular.
Sometimes standing for truth will cost you relationships.
Sometimes doing what is right will leave you misunderstood.
But rejection does not mean you have failed God.
Your patience can encourage someone who is suffering.
Your forgiveness can teach someone mercy.
Your faithfulness can strengthen someone who is weak.
Your testimony can give hope to someone who thinks there is no way forward.
Your wounds, when surrendered to Christ, can become places from which wisdom, compassion, and spiritual fruit emerge.
Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:10: “For when I am weak, then am I strong.”
Do not be discouraged by your thorns.
Do not measure yourself by those who reject you.
Remain rooted in Christ.
Keep bearing fruit.
Let the fruit speak louder than the thorns.
Our Lord said, “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit” (John 15:5).
You may have to endure pain, rejection, and opposition, but do not allow the thorns around your life to prevent the Holy Spirit from producing beautiful fruit through your life.
The goal is not to prove that you are a good tree to people. The goal is to remain rooted in Christ and allow Him to produce good fruit through you.
“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).
John Mark
The Truth 
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