The Root, The Shoot, The Fruit
written by Marie McGaha
narrated by Christy R. Diachenko
Available now on Audible
Buy Here
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In The Vineyard
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to
you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
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 15:1-8
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My
sitting room is decorated with wall hangings depicting vineyards, grapes, wine,
and my favorite has this verse on it. Everything that I am as a Christian is in
these eight verses. It defines who Christ is to us, who we are to Christ, and
how we are to live as His children. I spend several minutes every day reading
just these verses, and since I have to pass by the sitting room to get to the
laundry room, I always take the time to pause and look at what I have chosen as
my inspiration for not only the room, but for my life.
I would like to be able to say that I
have always used these verses as my guide in life but that just isn’t so. Like
fine wine, I had to age a bit to be able to understand the simplicity of God’s
word and how to apply it to my life. I wasn’t raised in a godly home but
thankfully, I had a godly grandmother whose influence from those summer visits
stayed with me.
Life can be complicated and as such, I
believe we make God and His word just as complicated. I know I did. However,
after years of making a mess of my life, I finally decided there had to be a
way to get through my years on earth that didn’t hurt quite so much. I came
back to the One I knew had been there all my life even through the messes I had
made, the trouble I had borrowed, the people I chose to associate with. God had
never left nor forsaken me (Joshua 1:5), it was I who had left God. And
although He had always been there, He did leave me to my own defenses until I
finally gave up in the knowledge that my defenses were pretty flimsy at best.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
How quickly we tend to forget that
kind of all-encompassing love! How quickly we pull away and try to do
everything on our own, in our own way. We were never intended to live apart
from God. We were never intended to be thrown under the bus of life. Quite the
contrary, we were intended to live life fully. To live life loved beyond measure,
(John 10:10). To live life safely in the arms of God.
We were created in the image of
God in both body (Genesis 1:27) and in spirit (Ephesians 4:24). We have a
God-shaped hole inside of us, yet we spend our lives trying to fill that hole
with everything but God! We use sex, drugs, alcohol, rock stars, movie stars,
music, sports, fast cars, wealth, food, everything under Heaven except that
which we were created for – God.
None of the things of this world can
fill that hole God created within us that yearns for Him. Romans 12:2 tells us
to not be “conformed to this world,”
yet, from the time we can crawl, we are fascinated by the things of the world.
Not all are bad of course, it’s human to want things but it’s how we use them,
and what we use them for, that defines its worth.
Having money isn’t bad. We all need
money to live but when money becomes all we think we need, and it becomes all
we seek to have, our intentions have gone haywire and money has become our god.
Listening to music isn’t bad. Music is
pleasurable, relaxing, motivating and part of our being that God put inside of
us. But when we begin identifying with lyrics that do not magnify the Lord, or
draw our attention away from the important things in our lives, then we’ve made
music our god.
Food is a good thing. We need to eat
to stay healthy but when we allow food to become our focus, our bodies begin to
rebel. We gain weight, arteries harden, and diabetes can develop, along with
heart problems, high cholesterol, and a myriad of other maladies. Food has
become our god.
The list goes on. Anything that takes
our focus off of God is not good for us. Our spirit weakens, our lives get out
of control, and we lose our sense of direction. God is our magnetic north and
His Word is our compass. Anytime we allow ourselves to wander off of His
course, the life path He has planned for each of us, our lives become something
other than what God wants for us. In order to stay on course, we need to be
firmly grounded in God’s Word. That is the root of our existence. Without a
good root system, nothing grows strong.
Anyone who has ever tried to grow
plants, flowers, or a vegetable garden, knows that there is a process to
getting what you want out of what you plant. When you grow plants, you expect
green healthy stalks and leaves. With flowers, you expect tulips from tulip
bulbs, roses from rosebushes, and from a vegetable garden, you expect each type
of vegetable to produce its own fruit.
But
you don’t just toss bulbs or seeds outside on the ground and wait for them to
grow. You till up the ground, you might have to bring in good soil if you live
in an area like I do. The ground is mostly rock, and what soil we have is red
clay, so we had to build up garden beds and bring in soil to fill them. The
soil has to have water and fertilizer to be healthy enough for the plants to
develop a good root system. But they also have to have plenty of sunshine,
which is why we plant in springtime and let the vegetables and flowers grow
through the hot part of summer, and then harvest in early fall.
Another
part of being a gardener is knowing when to prune. When I go out to water my
garden, I check the plants to make sure there are no bugs eating them, no
aphids present, and I have to sometimes prune back some of the leaves and
branches so all the fruit can get plenty of sunshine. Our spirits are like that
too. If we don’t get plenty of God, His Word, and fellowship with other
Christians, we become like the fruit on the bottom of the plants. They grow but
they never get quite as ripe or sweet as the other fruit because they don’t get
the same amount of sun until we prune off some of the leaves.
Malachi
4:2 “But for you who fear My name, the
sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth
and skip about like calves from the stall.”
Have
you ever seen calves in the fields? They run and leap about like they are so
happy just to be there. And when the Lord shines on us, we should leap about
with that same kind of joyous abandon! The Lord is our sun. He shines on us
with goodness and mercy.
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Think about it!
Pruning
can be painful but it is absolutely necessary in both gardening and in life. If
something is not good for us, we have to stop doing it. If we want to be
healthy, we have to make changes. The same is true of our Christian walk.
Pray!
Lord,
I ask you to show me the things in my life that are not pleasing to you. Show
me the areas where I need to make changes so that my life grows the way you
want me to. I know your plan for my life is better than anything I can think of
and ask that you will lead me in Jesus’ Holy Name. Amen.
Decide!
What
can you prune from your life to grow in God?
