Stay Connected to the Vine

The last couple days we've been talking about setbacks and what God's building in us through them. But here's the question I've been sitting with. What do we do with what we learn in those hard seasons? Because I don't think the point of a setback is just to get tougher or wiser. I think the point is to drive us deeper into Him. And that's a different kind of journey altogether.

Jesus said it plain in John 15:4-5, "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. 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." Read that last part again. Apart from me you can do nothing. Not a little. Nothing.

Listen, here's where I think a lot of us get tripped up. We believe in Jesus, we've said the prayer, we go to church, we try to be good people. But believing in Him and abiding in Him are not the same thing. Believing gets you in the door. Abiding is what happens after you sit down and stay awhile. And that's where the real work gets done.

I'll tell you what I've learned the hard way. You cannot white-knuckle your way to a fruitful life. I've tried it. I bet you have too. You grit your teeth, you make the list, you try harder on Monday, and by Thursday you're right back where you started, frustrated and wondering why this faith thing feels so heavy. That's because a branch was never designed to produce fruit on its own. It was designed to stay connected to the vine and let the life flow through it. The fruit is a byproduct of the connection, not the effort.

And that's what setbacks are supposed to do for us. They're supposed to remind us that we can't do this alone. They're supposed to drive us back to the vine when we've been drifting, back to prayer when we've been coasting, back to His word when we've been filling our heads with everything but. The setback isn't the end of the story, it's the invitation. Come closer. Stay here. Let Me do what you've been trying to do on your own.

So if you've come through something hard recently, don't just dust yourself off and keep walking the same way you were before. Let it change how close you stay. Abide. Remain. Sit with Him. That's where the fruit comes from. That's where the peace lives. And that's the whole point of this thing we call faith. You dig?

Be Nice. Grace Wins.

FMJ