Session 15

Is your life producing fruit?

From Chasing Purpose: A 27-Day Devotional

In John 15, Jesus compares Himself to a vine and us to its branches. When we abide in Him, our lives produce fruit.

Abide isn’t a word you hear much today, so consider these synonyms: keep to, conform to, stand by, remain, obey. Jesus is telling us to be as dependent on Him as a branch is to a vine.

Disconnected from Jesus, our faith shrivels and dies. But when we’re keeping in step with Jesus, conforming to His image, we start to bear fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 describes this fruit: “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

To disconnect a branch from the vine is to disconnect it from the nutrients it needs to survive and thrive. Likewise, we cannot produce spiritual fruit on our own. Fruits of the Spirit grow as we grow more and more connected to Jesus, the vine.

So how does this happen? Like most relationships, our relationship with Jesus grows through time spent together. We abide in Him as we talk to Him in prayer, read and meditate on His Word, worship Him at church, and obey His instruction.

But there’s another part of growing healthy fruit and that’s pruning. Cutting back overgrown or dead parts of a plant redirects essential nutrients toward growing fruit.

Likewise, God will sometimes cut away what’s harmful or unnecessary to produce something better. Although painful in the moment, this pruning is essential to growing fruit we so badly desire — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Reflect:

• What fruit is evident in your life? Where do you need more growth?
  
• What’s one way that pruning — removing something harmful or unnecessary — can help you grow in patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control?