Discipleship
Tucked away in the 15th chapter of the book of John is a beautiful little truth revealed by Jesus to His followers. Jesus began to talk to them about the power of connection. In the day and age in which we live there are a lot of distractions out there and so many things are vying for our time and attention.
Jesus uses the illustration of a grape vine to teach His disciples a kingdom truth that had the power to revolutionize their lives. He said: I am the vine and you are the branches and my Father is the Gardner. He goes on to explain that the unique relationship between the vine and the branches naturally produces fruit, if the attention of the branch is in the right place.
In nature, a branch inherently has the power and capability built within itself to produce fruit. God created it that way, just as He did us. If a branch's focus is on maintaining its connection to the root from which it draws all of its nutrients and sustenance needed for strength, health, and vitality, then it will naturally produce and bear fruit. If however the branch becomes focused on things other than drawing from the root, it begins to lose its fruit-production capability.
It's much the same way for us. God created us and our divine design was to live out the life of Jesus as a son or daughter of God. We are naturally wired by God to produce fruit based upon the focus and attention in our lives. If our focus is on Christ and we are drawing from our relationship with Him on a daily, or even moment-by-moment basis, we will ultimately produce a harvest of fruit that looks and tastes like the character and nature of Jesus.
If however we become focused on the multitude of distractions around us, then we will stop producing fruit in keeping with the nature of Jesus and start producing fruit consistent with whatever else we choose to feed ourselves on.
Let's take a little inventory today on our hearts with the Holy Spirit and evaluate where our time, attention, and focus is being spent. Is the majority of it being used to focus on the life-giving connection and power that could potentially be released from connection with Jesus, or is it distracted, distant, and losing ground? Remember you were created by God to be fruitful, and you will produce fruit, but whether that is good fruit or not depends on whether our focus is on our connection to Jesus, the vine, or if it is largely focused on other things.