Abundant Fruit

I am the Vine. You are the branches.
Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. John 15:5

I would like to live a life that shows that I have a vital union with Jesus. I know that when I am cut off from Him I can do nothing. I know that I must continually be nourished by Him to have even a small showing of His abundance in my life. I think that one of the nicest things about being in Heaven is that I won't have to strive to be good anymore. I won't have to be tempted to do the not so nice thing and have internal arguments with myself pushing myself towards doing the right thing. I won't have to struggle. I know that God clearly tells us that our struggle is a part of His cutting away those pesky branches that don't bear fruit, but really, it is so tiring and draining. And don't you find it just hard sometimes figuring out exactly what it is God wants you to do? As I wrote that I had to kind of laugh at myself because God clearly tells us to love Him first, and our neighbor second. Rats! That just isn't always an easy!

A friend recently left a message on my phone. It said this: "God is Sovereign, just wanted you to remember that". It's been a message that has been sticking with me. There are circumstances in my life that have been draining my spirit. In my morning prayers, I am continually asking God to: nourish me with His body (John 6:57), make me like a watered garden (Isaiah 58:11), let me drink of Him (John 4:14), to dwell between my shoulders (Deut. 33:12), illumine me with the Holy Spirit (sadly, lost the scripture to that one), and to be yoked with me (Matthew 11:29). I usually end up saying you know God, I just can't do this, You say You're turning me into gold, really, I don't think I'm getting there. I don't feel like people are seeing Your Light when they see me. I'm trusting that little glimmers of You are somehow shining through.

If you've seen the movie "Ghost", you'll remember the scene where Whoopi Goldburg's body is all of a sudden, whoosh, inhabited by the spirit of Sam Wheat, the dead husband. That's what God needs to do with me every day, whoosh, just take me over.

If I could learn the discipline of abiding, I wouldn't need such drastic measures!