Anyone can look like a Christian for a week or a month. So what’s the proof that God’s Word and the gospel have truly taken root in your heart?

Well, in Mark 4, Jesus helps us with the answer by telling a story, a parable. He describes a sower scattering seed on four soils. Some seed lands on hard ground and never sinks in. Some spring up quickly in rocky ground, but without roots, trouble scorches them. Some spring up in throny ground but are choked out by worries and riches. But some land on good soil, and they “hear the word and accept it and bear fruit,” (v20).

Notice the proof. It’s not how fast it sprouted up or how pretty it looked, but whether or not it endured to produce fruit. It’s not about a flash of excitement, but a changed life that keeps growing.

Fruit is slow, steady, and unmistakable. So don’t ask, “Did I feel something once?” Ask, “What aspects of godliness are growing in me and on me now?” Real Christians produce real fruit, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold.

Change begins in you!