GROWING DEEPER
John 15:1-5
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 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.
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
It's spring gardening season here in the North. It's not time to plant yet but there are jobs to be done. A friend of mine has grape and raspberry vines that he has allowed us in the past to garden. Normally we would be pruning the vines this time of the year so that later this summer we will have great tasting, sweet fruit to enjoy.
The raspberries haven’t not been cut back in a few years and they have grown wild. It's almost impossible to get in and pick the berries. Also the grape vines are producing fewer and fewer grapes each year. Both the berries and grape vines are getting overgrown with branches that are no longer producing fruit and they are literally draining the good branches of what they need to produce the excellent fruit we desire.
Jesus' words, written down by John, speak to this very issue in our lives. In John 15 we read of Jesus' final conversations with His disciples before going to the cross. He makes sure to describe in detail what a relationship with Him should look like.
He is the Vine and we, His people, are the branches. He wants and expects us to bear fruit. For those that do not bear fruit He will prune away. Now, if we are truly one of His children and not bearing fruit we will remain one of His children, but we will not have the close personal relationship that He longs for with us. But for those that are bearing fruit, He prunes us to allow us to bear more and better fruit. There may be times when we don't wsnt to give up of some of the branches that we've grown and if we refuse to allow Him to prune them back we will continually produce less and less fruit until we are no longer of use to Him, the Vine.
We must allow The Gardener to prune where He sees fit. He knows what we need removed from our lives so we are better suited to produce the fruit that He longs to have us produce. When we allow Him to do as He sees fit we will grow deeper and deeper into the Vine.
Today is the perfect day to tell Him that you are willing to prune back where He sees fit. Give Him free reign in your life. What is it that you've allowed to grow and choke out the growth needed to produce the fruit that He wants from your life. He says to abide in Him, that means to be closely connected and being fed what He has to offer.
Start today. Remove the dead and weak growth and start producing the fruit that will allow you to grow deeper into Him.
Help achieve the mission - GIVE today
Click the button to sign up for Dean’s Daily Devotional. FREE and delivered daily.