Our Relationship with God - Part 4

Let's read Verse 4 now: "Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abides in the vine: no more can you, except you abide in Me."

How much effort does it take for the branch to bear fruit?  None, so can we make ourselves bear fruit?  In Verse 4, it says, we can only bear fruit if we abide in the vine.  The only thing that takes effort is 'abiding'.  We have a free choice if we want to abide in the vine and bear fruit to His glory or if we want to be a withered branch and bear sickly fruit that no one wants to pick.  This would be caused by not abiding day by day in Christ the Vine.

Let's look at verse 5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in Me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing."

How important is it that we abide in Christ?  If we abide in Him, we will bring forth much fruit:  How much can we bring forth without Him?  Without Him we can do nothing.  How simple is that?  So far I see the secret is ABIDING IN HIM MOMENT BY MOMENT, DAY BY DAY.  We will bring forth lots of fruit.

Let's read Galatians 5:22,23 again to refresh our minds as to what fruit is.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law."

I have discovered that when I  stay connected to the Vine, Christ, I have much love, joy, peace and my patience is getting better, I am more gentle with others, and I have learned that it doesn't all come at once.  We must be patient and wait on God to fill us with His Spirit which includes all these fruit.  The thing that thrills me the most is how much love God has place in my heart for nearly everybody that I come in contact with.  Even some who have never spoken to me before, I can still love them.  The best part of it all is that I really do have an abundance of love in my heart for all those that I thought I could never love.  It is so wonderful.  Please be a fruit bearing branch and bring glory to God with your fruit.  Grandma Joan