I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
It has been over 40 years since I called on Jesus Christ for salvation. At the age of 24, all I knew was that my way of living was not working out well and it was time for a radical change in ownership. My life that may have looked successful and normal from the outside was empty and purposeless on the inside. When someone shared the “Good News” of Jesus Christ with me I was by God’s grace suddenly made aware that the answers I was searching for in life were found in Him. An immediate transformation began once I trusted in Christ that has continued to this very day as the Lord removed things from my life that were dead and wicked and began adding the necessary changes that I needed to grow in righteousness. My thoughts changed from “What do I want?” to “What does God want?” To fully understand what the above verse is teaching us, you must first read John 15:1-11. For us to be in relationship with the Living God, we must be “In Christ” and “abiding” in Him by a close relationship through the Holy Spirit. To grow, we must have fellowship with Christ by faith, obedience and having God’s Word in our heart. While this may seem like an overwhelming task, let us remember that our salvation and growth are God’s plan and He desires it for us. The Lord of the universe is available to help us, and if He is for us, who can stand against us! What we must do each day is surrender to Him in faith and love and allow His Spirit to work in and through us. We need to apply ourselves to God’s Word, the Bible, and let truth sink into our soul. God Himself will trim and prune those things we possess that hinder our growth as He is the Master Vinedresser. Yes, this can be painful at times, but it is all for our own good. Our part is to let the light of truth and the water of cleansing from God’s Word to work in us and form us more into Christlikeness. Now comes my main point, if we really desire to be pleasing to the Lord, the one thing I see missing so much today in confessing Christians is consistency and focus. We seem to be very undisciplined and look at Bible reading, daily prayer and weekly worship with the Body of Christ as options that we only occasionally need to observe. This has been especially evident since the Covid Pandemic where many people reset their priorities and practices to be more about comfort and convenience. The only way to grow as the Lord desires for us is to be “all in” as Jesus has been “all in” for us when He died on the cross. Being lukewarm and casual about our relationship with our Savior cannot be blessed by Him. If our “abiding in Christ” is a low priority to us, we will likely resist His pruning work; not only will we suffer but all of those who depend on us and know us will also suffer as we will not be all we should. My friends, much is at stake each day on how we pursue and respond to Jesus Christ; make Him your top priority and let His will be your will and God’s Word promises you will bear much fruit in this life and into eternity!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek