Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 116: To Flower or to Die

"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." John 15:1-2

Let's break this beast down, shall we?

The first thing to understand is that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, duh. What that means though is that since Jesus is the vine he is both our reason for life and our ability to have life. A branch on its own is a dead stick on the ground, in order for that branch to fulfill its purpose it must be connected to the vine and when it is connected to the vine it can not only live but be a conduit for more life.

That last bit is rather important, while we are connected to the vine we reach out from the life that is given to us in order to bring life to others. By being connected to Jesus we can blossom and bring beauty. Apart from Jesus we can not. Apart from Jesus we will still breath in and out and still live our lives but we will never truly be alive and we will not be able to give life to others.

By being disconnected from the vine we are disconnected from our true potential and our true purpose and our true power. From the moment of disconnection we are only capable of what we are capable of on our own, we are a stick on the ground and we can be the best stick on the ground that we can be but we will never be anything but a stick on the ground. You may well be okay being a really good dead stick, but I want a little more.

If we continue to be connected and we share the life given to us with others we will move into a period of being pruned. To prune means to cut back a little bit of the growing portion to make way for new and better growth, we are pruned to produce more. No matter how long we are connected to the vine God understands that we are not yet perfected and that there are aspects of our lives that need removed so that we can produce even more for life and love for others.

Jesus gives us the secret ingredient to what we can truly be, connection. If we stay connected we can be a part of something bigger than ourselves as opposed to just being a really good dead stick.

+ How do you keep connected to Jesus?

+ What examples can you point to in your life of how your purpose and potential has grown by being connected?