Abide - Meditation #1 on John 15

How to live present to God and

present to His best plan for my life. 

Abide.

It's about abiding.  Jesus paints us a beautiful picture of this in John 15:1-16.  Join me in a process of meditating on this passage, drawing from it's truths, beauty and power for our everyday lives.

*  Read the how and why, a couple easy steps to meditate on scripture, & how YOU can do this for yourself.  Read here, then come back and join the conversation.

John 15:1-2

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

There’s a sobering realization as I study and meditate on John 15 that as a branch, 

I’m not the source OR the object!  

I’m not the beginning OR the end!

 This picture, which Jesus teaches me to base my entire life on, places me as a conduit.  I am nothing but a receiver and a distributor.  

Goodness!  This flies in the face of every other message coming at me.

Jesus, the Vine, is my total and only source of life.  Without His life-giving power and flow into my life, (as a branch), I will shrivel.  Die.  Be of no worth or use.

And the point of this life flow is not so that I can be a thick, long, strong branch - growing and reaching and sucking all the nutrients to - just be a branch. The point is to be a conduit of life to deliver fruit to others.  Life to others.

It doesn’t start with me.

It doesn’t end with me.

So why do I try to live my life as if it does?  As if it’s for and about me?

I am a branch.

 

If my God-desgined purpose is to bear fruit for God and unto others, then it makes sense that to strive for anything else will never satisfy.

Never.

Any other estimation of my life and purpose will leave me;

dry.

barren. 

discontent. 

empty.

unfulfilled.

I cannot produce fruit.  I can’t squeeze it out through will power, effort or determination.

My talents and abilities are useless in fruit coming into being.

I must simply submit myself to the Vinedresser, (The Father), Who created me for this purpose.  I must abide and stay connected to The Vine, (Jesus), who is my life.  

I must rely fully on the sap of the Holy Spirit, my supernatural source of power, to bear fruit.