John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
Recently in one of my travels I passed a vineyard. It wasn’t lush and green with beautiful clusters of grapes. It was more like naked sticks leaning for all their life against a fence. At the end of each row was bare rose bushes cut back with blunt branches. Nothing was pretty. Nothing was tempting to the eye. Nothing, a lot of nothing. Why? It was not the season for grapes and roses.
So, why all the nothing in your life? Perhaps, just perhaps it is not your season. It is the season the vinedresser has decided that in order for you to produce, He must cut away the excess to preserve the true vine.
If we know this ahead of time, it is much easier to handle. It is only when we compare our season with someone else’s, do we feel naked and unproductive. If, however we lean into the season we are in, embrace the pruning and mulching, when the season changes we are ready to outproduce that vine that has gone unattended. Attention is not always appreciated unless of course we understand attention is actually love. Even babies born that are not given attention, though fed and changed—die from neglect and lack of touch.
So, the decision is truly up to us. Give ourselves over to the Master of the vineyard and live to one day be a great producer? Or choose to live unattended, doing our own thing. Our own way, the fallen way, the way of the flesh.
ACTION STEP: Allow yourself to embrace whatever season you are in. Live life with no comparisons. Embrace the attention of the Father even if it comes through the man or woman of God He has set you under. Go ahead and saw, "Here I am cut me."
I believe in you and you need to believe in yourself.
So, why all the nothing in your life? Perhaps, just perhaps it is not your season. It is the season the vinedresser has decided that in order for you to produce, He must cut away the excess to preserve the true vine.
If we know this ahead of time, it is much easier to handle. It is only when we compare our season with someone else’s, do we feel naked and unproductive. If, however we lean into the season we are in, embrace the pruning and mulching, when the season changes we are ready to outproduce that vine that has gone unattended. Attention is not always appreciated unless of course we understand attention is actually love. Even babies born that are not given attention, though fed and changed—die from neglect and lack of touch.
So, the decision is truly up to us. Give ourselves over to the Master of the vineyard and live to one day be a great producer? Or choose to live unattended, doing our own thing. Our own way, the fallen way, the way of the flesh.
ACTION STEP: Allow yourself to embrace whatever season you are in. Live life with no comparisons. Embrace the attention of the Father even if it comes through the man or woman of God He has set you under. Go ahead and saw, "Here I am cut me."
I believe in you and you need to believe in yourself.
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