Nothingness

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

This verse stuck out to me this week. In this one verse there is not only a great illustration, but there is a promise and a warning. What more can I ask for from one verse? But so often, I let the words of God pass me by as another Sunday School memory verse, but not the real and living words of God. Today, I am not going to let that happen, and I hope that you won't either.

In the first part of this verse, Jesus tells us that he is the vine. THE Vine. Like, the real thing. He also tells us that we are the branches. You don't need a biology major to know that the branches can only exist through the vine. The branches cannot survive on their own, and they get all of their nutrients from the vine, just like we cannot survive on our own, and we can only be truly satisfied by God. This takes the focus off of the branches, and onto the Vine.

I don't know about you, but I like to be in the center of attention. It's hard to reorient my self-centered thoughts to center around God, who is the rightful center of my life. After all, I am just a branch, who am I to talk big and mighty when I cannot even survive by myself. But that's what I do.Sometimes I like to give glory to myself instead of to God. The fact is, I can either give glory to myself, or I can give glory to God. I cannot do both.

Let's look at what happens when I give glory to the Vine.

"If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit." 

That's what I'm talking about! This is the promise. If I remain in God, and God remains in me, then I will bear much fruit. Now this verse doesn't say that if I remain in God, He will deliver fruit baskets to my door every day, because one, fruit baskets are weird, and two, Jesus is talking about lasting fruit. Check out this list of "fruits" that come from God.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." 
Galatians 5:22-23a

If you think about it, this makes sense. After all, God is all of these things, and if I stay close to Him, then He will guide me in His ways. When He guides me in His ways, then I will bear fruit from Him, as a sign that I have remained with God.

Think about it this way. I have a friend that really likes the color mint green. She is obsessed with this color, and after time, I began to like the color more and more, because I value my friend's opinion, and I hang out with her a lot. Thus, if I am hanging out with God, I will see that He is so incredibly loving, and I will be more loving as result. I will see that He is so passionately faithful, and His faithfulness will run into my life and change me, producing fruit.

Notice that this fruit can only be produced by REMAINING in the Vine.

Now, what happens when I don't remain in Him? I like to call it "nothingness."

"Apart from me you can do nothing." 

NOTHING! I can do nothing on my own. For example, if I cut off a tree branch (which is a really funny example, because I am not a yard work person!), what would I do with the branch? Would I keep it so that I can get fruit from it? No, the branch is useless to me now, so I put it by the curb (or, a better idea, I could have a bonfire).

Just so, I can do nothing without God. I am not good for anything if I don't remain in God.

Sometimes, I find myself doing a lot of nothingness. I do things my own way, and it's easy and comfortable. To be honest, most days are filled with nothingness. Maybe that's why this verse stuck out to me this week. Because in this verse, there's a promise straight from the mouth of Jesus.

"If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit."

It's not my job to sustain myself. It's not my job to make my own fruit by good works. That's not my job, that's God's job. It's God's job to sustain me; it's God's job to produce fruit in me. It's my job to remain in Him.

Stop your nothingness.Remain in Him who sustains, and you will bear fruit.

Hannah