Day 29 - “Remain in me…”

Reading: John 15:1-16

The word remain means to abide, stay in the same place or condition, or continue to be.  It also makes us think of words like holding fast, being safe and secure in a position and not letting go. That is the picture that the Lord Jesus Christ portrays to us in this passage about the vine.

I inherited a small greenhouse and a vine when I moved house. I am sorry to say that after many years I have still not learned how to be a vinedresser or have followed the old Pears Cyclopaedia advice on how to train vines so that they look like the beautiful specimens in the Victorian greenhouses at West Dean Gardens. I do not water or feed it, but I do find that a good prune of the branches does produce better fruit. Last year after a vigorous prune in the winter and warm weather in the summer the vine did produce a good harvest of black grapes in September.

In this passage Jesus is the true Vine and we are the branches shooting out in all directions from the main stem. Jesus supplies all the nutrients from deep within to flow up through the branches. The branches depend upon him and the purpose for which the branches exist is to bear fruit. We have to ask ourselves what kind of fruit and how much fruit do we bear? The passage warns us that the vinedresser, God the Father, will prune the branches to produce more fruit but that whole branches will be cut off and removed altogether if no fruit is produced.

It is therefore important that we remain in him (verse 4), that his words remain in us (verse 7), and that we remain in his love (verse 9). We also have to obey his commands (verse 10) and love one another (verse 12). What will be the harvest of that remaining? We will receive answers to prayer (verse 7), know joy in him (verse 11), be his friends and not servants (verse 15) and bear fruit that will last (verse 16).

Response

Let us pray today that we will remain in Jesus and bear much fruit for him.

Susan