Living Lessons · Leaves or Fruit?

Today’s Menu 🎒

• A Tree with No Fruit – the acted-out parable

• What It Says About Us – modern leaves, hidden barrenness

• Fruit God Actually Looks For – quiet marks of real life

• 24-Hour Challenge – grow one fig today

Read Time: 3 Minutes

1 · A Tree with No Fruit 🌳

Jesus approaches a fig tree bursting with leaves.
No figs. No first-fruits. Just leafy pretence.
He curses it, and by sunrise it has withered.

Why so drastic?
Because Jesus wasn’t speaking to the tree—He was speaking to us.

2 · What It Says About Us 💬

🧠 Start from your foundation.

First-century listeners knew: leaves should mean figs.
So when Jesus finds only foliage, He exposes hypocrisy.

Our leaves today?

• A crisp “blessed” in every caption

• Worship playlists on loop

• Bible verses in stories

• Polished Sunday smiles

Behind the greenery, though, we can be fig-less: no prayer, no obedience, no change.

And Jesus still walks by.

3. Fruit God Actually Looks For 🍊

Not grand platforms or faultless theology, but everyday produce:

• Forgiveness that costs something

• Kindness when it’s inconvenient

• Confession without excuses

• Faithfulness when no one is watching

God inspects branches, not branding.

4. Your 24-Hour Challenge ⏳

Grow one fig.

1. Spot one leafy area. Where do you look alive but stay still?

2. Choose one action. Three minutes of real prayer, an honest apology, a quiet gift.

3. Tell someone. Reply to this email—or text a friend—to lock it in.

Fruit isn’t performance.
It’s nourishment others can taste.

Looking for unbiased, fact-based news? Join 1440 today.

Join over 4 million Americans who start their day with 1440 – your daily digest for unbiased, fact-centric news. From politics to sports, we cover it all by analyzing over 100 sources. Our concise, 5-minute read lands in your inbox each morning at no cost. Experience news without the noise; let 1440 help you make up your own mind. Sign up now and invite your friends and family to be part of the informed.

Subscribe to 1440 today.

🍇 Did today’s Living Lesson help you grow fruit?

We want every issue to move from reading to living.
Tell us how this lesson landed—and what you’d enjoy next.