I am the vine, you are the branches. The man who remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5
Holy Spirit, open my mind and heart to your meaning, and then help me change to live as you mean me to.
You are the vine. My friends have a few grape vines and I know someone who has a vineyard. It is all about the vine. When the prune, there are almost no branches left, but the vine is unharmed. The vine feeds and nourishes the branches. Without the vine, there is no harvest, no branches, no life. And so it is with me Lord. Only you bring me a life worth living. Only when I am close to you do I survive the pruning. Only when I am nourished by you do I grow.
What does it mean to “remain in me” Lord? First, I guess to remain in you I must first find my place in you. Or do we all start “in” you and only choose to leave? That sounds so true. Lord, I get so easily distracted by the world around me. I chase my own goals and my own pleasures. Lord help me to be “in” you, not just connected to you as I live in the world around me.
“bear much fruit.” It is your fruit I am supposed to bear. I can get so caught up in what I want to produce and that is so often so different than what you want. Perhaps that is key. If I am “in” you and you are “in” me, I will want what you want. Oh Lord, what a glorious life that would be! Not to just be willing to do what you want, but to want what you want. Lord, please change me so that I naturally bear your fruit because I am in you and you are in me and I want what you want.
“Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Can you be more clear? Nothing, is nothing. Not a little. Not less. Nothing. My work and time and toil spent outside of you, is a complete and total waste. Lord change me!