ABIDE IN THE VINE

I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in Me,
and I in him,
bears much fruit;
for apart from Me, you can do nothing.
John 15:5

There are those who feel they must be constantly laboring for the Lord in order to meet God’s high standards. Jesus gave a clear picture of what our relationship with Him ought to be like. He is the vine, the source of our life. We are the branches, the place where fruit is produced. As we receive life from Christ, the natural, inevitable result is that fruit is produced in our lives. We must abide the vine.

In our desire to produce results for our Lord, we sometimes become so intent on fruit production that we forget to simply abide in Christ. We may feel that abiding is not as productive, or that it takes too much time away from our fruit production. Yet Jesus said that it is not our activity that produces fruit, but rather it is our relationship with Him.

Jesus gave an important warning to His disciples. He cautioned that if they ever attempted to lived their Christian life apart from an intimate relationship with Him, they would discover that they stopped producing any significant results. They might exert great effort for the kingdom of God, yet when they stopped to account for their own lives, they would find only emptiness. One of the most dramatic acts Jesus ever performed was cursing a fig tree that had failed to produce fruit (Mark 11:14).

Are you comfortable in abiding, or are you constantly looking for activity? As you pray today, ask God to bring you a sense of calm, a sense of peace, so that you can find those moments to simply abide in Him. Also thank God for using you – in His way, on His terms – to produce fruit for His great harvest.

Source: “Experiencing God Day-By-Day; The Devotional and Journal”, by Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby ©1997. Entry April 25.