The vine and the branches

¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

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. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

All i need to be is a good tree. In this time of testing i realize that so often when we are not at an emotional equilibrium and we aren't feeling all warm and fuzzy when we are trying to connect with God we blame the devil when sometimes God is just pruning. When you see a tree that has just been pruned it looks ugly, but once everything grows back it is beautiful and healthy and bears good fruit or flowers. God does this for us because he loves us! Not because he wants to inflict pain on us and not because he is not close. When in this season it will likely be uncomfortable and sometimes it will hurt. its like when a silversmith is refining silver, he puts the silver in the furnace and all the dross rises to the surface and he skims it away until he can see his reflection in it. So to does God do that for us. He brings all our stuff to the surface, all the ugly stuff, the sin and hurt and pain and he skims it off so he can see his reflection in us. I love that God loves me enough to do that for me.

Today i am grateful for this season and grateful for this revelation. My Daddy really loves me, he loves me enough to teach me and discipline me. He knows that when he does that i grow.

Thankful heart, please stay

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