Remaining In The Vine
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:1-2
What an amazing relationship we have with the Father. He helps us by clearing the brush from our life that isn’t producing fruit. He then continues to grow and nurture the part of our life that is producing fruit.
I find a lot of comfort in this verse of the Bible and it also motivates me to look at my life. To examine my fruit. Sometimes I walk away cringing and earnestly pray this verse over my life because I feel the need for the Father‘s grace and mercy.
When examining your fruit I like to look at my life in three aspects:
Faith
Attitude
Where do I spend my time
How is my faith? Am I trusting God in my everyday life? Am I starting my day with Him rather than my calendar or notifications on my phone. When I find myself in a rocky patch where do I turn and what do I turn to? Am I staying in the Word, am I praying scripture over my life?
When you examine something you have to ask the difficult questions. The uncomfortable questions.
How is my attitude? This can sometimes be a loaded question. Of course my attitude is great when considering the things that are going smooth in my life. But how am I when I am tired and moody or stressed and overwhelmed? How do I respond to the situations that annoy me or better yet the people I have a hard time connecting with. But the most important part of my attitude is asking myself, “where is my heart oriented?“ Is it oriented to Christ and is it oriented to seeking His will in my life?
Another part of examining our life is being able to be honest with ourselves. One of the most sincere questions we can ask is “where do I spend my time?”
This is not so much about WHERE but HOW I spend my time? And to make it even simpler…who am I serving? Am I serving others or am I serving myself? Am I helping others and encouraging them? Am I serving my husband with love and support and being the teammate I promised I would be? Am I serving my kids in how I show them love, spend time with them, and teach them about Jesus? Or does my day consist of doing things that serve me in the long run like getting my to do list done.
I am a list person. I like to get things done. But I am so thankful for the times the Holy Spirit redirects my priorities and I realize what is MOST important which is serving others and by doing so, serving God.
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15:4
So after I examine my life I ask the toughest question of all…does my life reflect Christ?
For the areas that I have seen God change in my life and prune I give thanks!
For the areas that do not match His calling I pray for God to continue to harvest and take away the branches that do not bear fruit.
The key to being fruitful is remaining in Jesus, remaining in the true vine! Nothing else will do. He has already promised to remain in us and the Father is ready to do some major gardening in our life! And what a beautiful harvest awaits as we invite Him to do so.
Her Love For Him
