The Power of Abiding in God

I love this passage, because I love it that God loves us so much that He willing to continuously work with us. This passage shows a series of connections. God is the gardener, Jesus is the true grapevine, and we are the branches. God cuts off every branch that does bear good fruit. In other words, He takes away everything within us that is not like Him. And even the branches that bear good fruit, God prunes them so that they can be even more fruitful.

Prune is a process of "cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems" in order to "increase fruitfulness and growth." God takes even the good things within us and make them better so that they produce even more fruitful.

However, for this to take place there is a condition - You must be connected to the true grapevine, Jesus. Jesus tells us that we must abide (the Message Version says to "make your home" in Jesus) in order to be abundant. But, if you are apart from Jesus you cannot bear good fruit. Jesus says that once we are hooked up with Him, you can able to asking anything and it will be "listened to and acted upon". When we produce good fruit, this is one of the ways that God reveals who He is to us.

So having things cut off or being pruned, may not be enjoyable in the process, but God knows what way it takes and how to have our lives fully oriented towards Him. It's key that we abide in Him, so that we can become all of what God has planned for us to be. Trust the process, we have the best Gardener tending after our branches.

Created about 2 years ago