We live in a time when everyone seems to be building something: a business, a name, a platform, a dream.
But with all the effort we pour out, it’s worth asking: What truth are we building on? And what fruit is it producing?
Some say truth is whatever works for you. That if it feels right, it is right. But when the storms of life come, feelings won’t hold up a roof. Trends won’t keep walls from collapsing. And popularity won’t provide shelter when everything around you is shaking. What we build on matters, and how we build matters.
“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.” — Psalm 128:1-2 (NIV)
This is a beautiful promise, one we want to believe. But for many of us, it feels distant. What if you’ve labored and still feel empty? What if you’ve worked, prayed, and waited, and the blessings haven’t come?
The Foundation of Reverence
The fruit of our labor doesn’t begin with effort—it begins with reverence. With walking in His ways. It’s not just what we do, but the why and how we do it. You can pour yourself into something for years and still feel empty if the foundation is wrong. You can sweat, sacrifice, and strive, but unless the Lord is at the center, the harvest may never satisfy.
I think often of my mom. She lived through destruction, not once or twice, but over and over again: betrayal, poverty, abuse, abandonment, sickness. I watched her endure things no one should ever have to live through. But what always amazed me was her posture in the storm.
Some of it came from choices made by others, some from circumstances beyond her control, and some from a world that seemed determined to break her down. But no matter what came, she stood. She didn’t bend toward bitterness. She didn’t chase escape. She stood firm, not in her strength, but in God’s.
She built on something real.
A Grounded Reality
She didn’t have much. She wasn’t surrounded by people who poured into her spiritually. She didn’t have a house filled with warmth or peace. But she had something deeper. She had God. And she clung to Him. Her joy wasn’t in what she possessed; it was in what she believed. Even when life was cruel, she kept her heart rooted in truth. She prayed, she persevered, and she planted seeds. She held onto promises she didn’t always get to see fulfilled in her lifetime. But she sowed something in me, and that’s part of the fruit of her labour.
Jesus told a parable that echoes through every generation:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” — Matthew 7:24–27 (NIV)
We’re all building. We’re all laboring. But storms are coming. And when they hit, it won’t matter how nice the house looks. It’ll only matter what it was built on.
True Prosperity and Legacy
It’s easy to look for fruit in the wrong places. We want the visible stuff: success, recognition, comfort. But the fruit God speaks of in Scripture is different.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” — Galatians 5:22–23 (NIV)
That’s the fruit I saw in my mother—not all the time, not perfectly, but consistently. And it’s the fruit I want to pass on to my children. Sometimes the fruit is invisible to the world, but it’s transforming your soul. What she planted in faith, I now carry forward. Her foundation became my inheritance. Her obedience became my shelter.
Ask yourself:
- What truth am I laboring in?
- What foundation am I building on?
- And what fruit will come from this life I’m constructing?
Sometimes we chase the results and forget to check the roots. If the foundation is Christ, the fruit may take time, but it will come.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” — Galatians 6:9 (NIV)