{"id":5770,"date":"2025-03-29T05:29:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-29T10:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/?p=5770"},"modified":"2025-03-29T05:29:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T10:29:51","slug":"bearing-the-fruit-of-righteousness-joshua-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/2025\/03\/29\/bearing-the-fruit-of-righteousness-joshua-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing the fruit of Righteousness (Joshua Thomas)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Proverbs 11: 23-30<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During this Lenten season, God calls us to walk in\u00a0 righteousness and generosity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proverbs 11:23-30 reminds us that the desires of the\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">righteous lead to goodness, while the ways of the wicked\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">end in destruction. Keep trust in the Lord as the righteous\u00a0 \u201cwill flourish like green leaves.\u201d A generous heart is\u00a0 blessed, and those who refresh others will themselves be\u00a0 refreshed. Like a tree of life, the righteous bear fruit that\u00a0 blesses many.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we reflect on these verses, let us examine our hearts.\u00a0 Are we sowing kindness and wisdom? Are we uplifting\u00a0 others through our words and actions? Lent is a time of\u00a0 transformation &#8211; a time to turn from selfishness and\u00a0 embrace the life giving ways of God. When we walk in\u00a0 righteousness, we not only receive His blessings but also\u00a0 become a source of blessing to those around us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>CLOSING PRAYER\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gracious and Loving Father,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We come before You in this season of reflection and\u00a0 renewal. Teach us to desire what is good and righteous.\u00a0 Fill our hearts with generosity and wisdom so that we may\u00a0 bear fruit that glorifies You. Help us to be like a tree of life,\u00a0 bringing encouragement, love, and grace to those around\u00a0 us. May we refresh others as You refresh our souls. Lord, transform us into vessels of Your goodness, that we\u00a0 may walk in Your ways and lead others to Your light. We\u00a0 submit our lives humbly before You, in Jesus\u2019 name.\u00a0 Amen\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proverbs 11: 23-30 During this Lenten season, God calls us to walk in\u00a0 righteousness and generosity.\u00a0 Proverbs 11:23-30 reminds us that the desires of the\u00a0 righteous lead to goodness, while&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent-reflections"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/images-4.jpg?fit=275%2C183&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5772,"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770\/revisions\/5772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/detroitmarthoma.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}