Reflect on John 15: 1-7, 16-17
I, Jesus, am the True Vine. When you see the vine early in the season, the fruit has to be searched for. But it is there. Little bunches of unripe grapes, some green, some turning red.
My Father God is the gardener. God looks after the vine, digging round it, nourishing it with compost and manure.
If there is a branch that is merely growing for its own sake but is not fruit-bearing, however pretty the leaves might be, God will cut it off. Then it doesn't waste the nourishment in its non-fruiting, and the vine itself will bear firmer fruit.
You must understand that, before the vine can fruit, it has to go through a time of darkness. The winter. Cold weather. A time of resting. This is not wasted time. But sometimes waiting is hard.
God is not going to treat the vine with hormones to make it overproduce, for that fruit would not be of the best. God will use the nature of the seasons to enable gentle growth at the right time and pace to produce mature and tasty fruit.
When the branch can be seen to be producing fruit, God will take special care of it and carefully trim it, so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already beginning to bear fruit through receiving my words.
But remember, a branch cut off from the vine, even when it has proved to be fruiting, will not eventually produce mature fruit. It must remain connected to the main stem. And so the fruit you can bear will only be good fruit if you, as branches, remain connected to me, Jesus, the True Vine.
If you go away from me...if you do not pray... you will be like a branch cut off that withers because the life sap is no longer in it. Those kind of branches simply become dry and fit only for burning - and even then they do not burn well!
What God longs for is that you remain connected to me, the True Vine, and that you continue to take into your life the nourishment that comes from my words, from my example and my commands, that they become part of you, in the same way that the feeding and manuring of the vine transfers nourishment to the fruit.
Remain in me and in my love, and you will know that the requests you make of God will be honoured.
It is not that you have chosen me; but it is I who have chosen you, and I have appointed you to go out and to bear fruit that will be lasting; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
Copyright Katharine Cheney Reflect 2017