by Trina L. Grant

Created on: August 17, 2008   Last Updated: August 18, 2008

John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

I read this and smiled to myself. Quick flashes of memories spark through my mind, scenes where I trusted my own intuition rather than turned to God for guidance. I am in no place to write any lofty dissertations on bearing spiritual fruit for the Lord. Then I realized I was discounting that the Lord CREATED the very highest of mountains, and moves them when He chooses to. What's a little fruit? Who am I to underestimate Him? Which brings us back to the Scripture verse; without the Lord our efforts are useless. No matter what our endeavors may be, nothing will come of it until the Lord is in the Captain's chair.

In Cameron V. Thompson's book "Master Secrets of Prayer", he says that prayer is essentially when we give up trying to do it ourselves and let God have a go at it. Alcoholics Anonymous sums it up quite nicely, "Let Go and Let God". It is so much easier said than done. For some reason it is human nature for even the most prayerful of men to sometimes call themselves "letting go and letting God", while all the while still trying to sort the whole mess out for themselves.

And so it was that I was prayerfully drawn to John 15:5. Jesus plainly and succinctly explains that He, the Vine, is what holds it all together. He is where our strength comes from, the very source of our most important nourishment. Apart from Him, we are lost, dead and useless. We must allow Him to be our strength, our very source of life. Jesus has to continually nourish us and give us strength in order for us to survive, and thrive. Bearing much fruit requires that we, the branches be continually attached to, and taking nourishment from, Jesus, the root. Dead branches that have fallen off cannot very well grow fruit, now can they?

As the branches begin to grow longer, and thicker, they will of course, need more water, more sustenance. In this same way, the more we depend on the Lord, the more we will need to, and indeed, desire to lean on Him. It is the same with studying the Word, the more we read, the more we want to learn. We come to realize that no matter how bad the storms of life may be, God is the root of our strength, and He will always keep us grounded. Try it for yourself. It comes a as welcome realization that you find yourself looking forward to your private time with your Bible and a prayer.

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