Drawing from the Vine

John 15:2

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Jesus is the vine.  Our Father in heaven is the vine keeper.  We are the branches.  Every branch is examined by Our Father.  Every branch that is not producing fruit because it does not draw what it needs from the vine is allowed to wither away.  Every branch that is producing fruit is pruned so that it may draw closer to the vine and its production may increase. 

Because we are born with no attachment to the True Vine, we have no hope of bearing fruit.  The Father in heaven is a wise husbandman.  In His mercy and loving kindness, He provides a way for us to be grafted into the True Vine.  Through His grace, He insures that we can draw from the essential elements of the Vine.

Nature provides a good example of this harvesting process.  A small tree rises from the soil and the farmer sees that it is a crabapple.  The farmer knows that the crabapple is healthy but it will never bear good fruit.  So the farmer grafts a golden delicious apple tree into the crabapple tree.  The new tree is now capable of bearing good fruit.  The roots, however, are still of the crabapple.  The roots will continue to produce crabapple shoots.  If the farmer does not prune the crabapple shoots, the new tree will not reach its potential for producing golden delicious apples.

So it is with us.  We were grafted into the body of Christ and given a new life by Our Savior.  The Holy Spirit indwells us to make sure that we are pruning away all of the sin from our old lives.  Unless we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will not reach the fullness that Almighty God planned for us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for grafting us into Your kingdom through the sacrificial work of Your Son.  We rejoice that You have sent the Holy Spirit to help us to overcome the sin that we inherited and continues to rise up against us as we seek to live as new men and women in Christ.  We pray, Father, that You will provide the inspiration that we need to submit to the Holy Spirit and the strength that we need to stand against the enemy who comes to steal our fruit.  Through Your grace, may we see a full harvest from our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the True Vine.