The Vine

I have been inspired :) I love inspiration from God .My inspiration starts with grapes. As I am sitting down at my dinosaur of a computer thinking of a completely different idea to post I decide I want some grapes. I walk into my kitchen, open the fridge , pull out the bag, put them in a strainer, wash them and remove the vine. Now I am sure this sounds completely odd. So I am going to veer off from the reason of inspiration and come back to it later.

As I walk this path of everlasting life, I continually find myself in awe. That's not new of course , generally when I describe how I feel about God, Awe comes into play. But lately I have been getting hammered by storms. Trials. Pitfalls. Whatever you want to call them, they have been happening in my life. Spiritually, financially, emotionally. It seems like every time I move two spaces towards God and this path He has chosen, something comes up to try and knock me 5 steps back. Now I am not surprised by this because the Word tells us this will happen. Trials, tribulation, long suffering have to happen in this life. We don't get an automatic get out of jail free card because we are Christians. We just have to focus on something greater than the trial in our life. His name happens to be Jesus. You see Jesus tells us this road in life is difficult. He warns us in advance. See how great our Lord is.

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Our path, our gate, our way in this alien world is narrow. Narrow by the way generally means a little more difficult. Walking up narrow stairs- difficult, winding down a narrow road- difficult. Just examples.  You see we are so hammered by life, the world, things sometimes we forget what our main focus is on. One of the greatest things I believe in is this. Follow the narrow path to eternity with our Lord. Our King!. If we keep our eyes on Jesus, If we let HIM guide our footsteps in this path, facing trials is just a little bit easier. It's when we take our eyes off of our precious Lord that we notice the world is there. We notice the worry, the stress, the scariness, the ugliness, the chaos that rules this world. That is when things fall apart. We then become so focused on how to maintain control, we forget that we had already previously given control over to God. He holds the reigns. Not us! You see God tells us to give everything to him. For his way is light.


"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Alright now back to my reasoning. You see God's way is the only way. What holds us here on this earth? Nothing. Nothing should surpass our love for the Lord. Jesus needs to be our everything we need to abide in Him. Be with Him daily. Seek Him, His Word, His Life every single day.  I AM the true vine! Jesus said in John 15:1


“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples." John 15:5-8

Without God, we can do nothing. If we don't abide in Him we are cast out! If we stay with Jesus. Our vine of Life. If we are in his Word, it dwells within us! HE is within us. How powerful that is. We can ask for what we desire, and it will be done! God needs to be glorified in all we do. Keeping our focus on the Lord helps us work towards glorifying God! With this we will bear much fruit! And we will be His disciples.

"You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them." Matthew 7:16-20

Do you want to be a disciple of Christ? I know I do. I want to bear good fruit. Worthy of the Lord. We are the branch that is connected to the Vine! Jesus is that vine. Our branch bears good fruit as long as we stay with the vine. We abide within Him. Jesus washed away our sin because HE loved us. Abiding in Him, staying focused on His will. His way. His truth. This shouldn't be hard. Our hearts already belong to Him. From the time we surrendered and gave our heart to him change has come. Following, obeying, naturally need to take place. 

Look at your life. Truly meditate and contemplate our life.  This is hard I know. But look at the fruit you bear. Is it worthy of God? Take the grapes  wash them with Jesus' blood, but hold tight to the branch that is connected to the vine. Do not put this off. We may not have a later. This vine, the beautiful wonderful vine is our road, our way to God. The Almighty! Abba!

All this inspiration from grapes!! God is good :) 

Father God, thank you for shifting my whole world. Thank you for dwelling within me. Teaching me gently and holding me in your arms. Thank you for giving me the chance to remain and abide in you. For you are an amazing God. You are worthy! Lord God my heart belongs to you. Have your way Lord. For Your way is the Only way!

Amen