A Gardening Story

Gather around dear children and listen to a story...

"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 bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:1-2;4-5;8

John 15 is not a new chapter in the Bible to me. I've known I was a branch for quite some time now. Still the Lord brought me back to this familiar chapter the other morning and began to shed some new light on the garden.

You see my garden had a few misconceptions.

1.) Productivity in my life (aka getting a lot of things done) equals produce!
WRONG!

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

Perhaps you're like me and you've been walking out the Lord's will in complete obedience and willingness yet this race of faith feels more like a wade through some deep mud. You can't seem to get anything accomplished, your pursuits are tangled in slow downs and your labors are frustrated by so many things that are out of your control. Sound familiar?
Take heart! You're growing fruit! How can you grow patience without a trying situation? Endurance without resistance? Faithfulness without a long road of mundane tasks?

Which leads us to number 2!

2.) I'm going through a difficult season, He must be pruning.
Not necessarily.

People often tell you that when you're going through some challenging seasons that you're being pruned. The other day I was considering this from a plants perspective. What would be harder for the tomato plant in our garden out back: for me to snip off a few branches or to grow tomatoes?

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

When we first come to the Lord pruning probably is the painful part because He often has a lot of pruning to do so we start growing fruit.
Later you find that growing fruit is very labor intensive! And the only reason you sometimes think oh-no when you see His jolly face coming over with the pruning shears is because you know more fruit will be growing soon!
So difficulty doesn't always mean He's pruning bad things from your life, a lot of times it means He's cultivating great things!

3.) Well in light of all that I must be one big branch just loaded up with ripe fruit!
WRONG!

Whenever I read John 15 I pictured myself a thriving branch loaded with fruit. But every gardener knows you don't leave ripe fruit on the branch!
Why do you grow fruit? To eat it of course!
YOU'RE GOING TO DO WHAT TO MY FRUIT?!? Do you know how LONG it took me to grow that?!?
We don't grow fruit for ourselves.

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
John 15:7

We are full because we are connected to the vine. Everything the Father has is ours because we are abiding in the vine.
Then why the fruit?

"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit... John 15:8

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good... Psalm 34:8

The fruit is for others, so that they can partake of the life of Christ. Remember apart from Him you can do nothing. His life is what fills you, His life is what fills that fruit.
And He was the first one to feed us.

and when He [Jesus] had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
1 Corinthians 11:24

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
John 14:12

You are doing greater works because of the abundance of fruit that you bear. You may feel like a spindly little branch loaded down with half ripened fruit as you trudge through the mud of this life.
But if you take a moment to look, you will see the smile on the vinedressers face as He talks to you on the warm summer evening. And if you listen you'll hear the laughter and joy of those whose pains of hunger are being wiped away by the filling fruit that's spilling over with the life of Christ because you were willing to grow it.

Once you were the hungry being feed, now you are the feeder of the hungry.

"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
John 15:11