“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:1-2
At first I wasn’t entirely sure what fruitfulness meant. Fruitfulness is anything that is productive: it grows and produces, (which is what we want to do with the kingdom) much like a fruit tree. Think of it this way: a tree gets energy from the ground and the energy goes all through out the tree going to every branch, but once you cut off some branches that are not producing fruit the branches that are growing fruit will grow bigger and better fruit. The branches represent the priorities and activities in our lives. Identifying the branches that do not produce fruit is important for evaluating what you value in your life. We don’t always notice that the activities that keep us busy are taking the energy from the fruit. When we can not cut them off Jesus will, He will prune us. Pruning means to cut off parts for better shape or more fruitful growth. We can’t always see the things taking away our time and energy of growing the Lord’s kingdom, but Jesus knows and if we ask, he will help highlight them and help us cut them out of our life.
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:7-8
Busyness does not always mean fruitfulness. . . This made me think, I find myself so many times being “busy” and just going, going, and going to games, events, work, school, hanging out with my friends. I had to ask myself if all the things I am “busy” with are fruitful. The answer I came up with was no. I feel as though our society today pushes us to always be doing something, like we have to fill our time with activities. There are a lot of things in our life that are not necessary and meaningless and therefore are not fruitful. For lots of people, and myself, it would social media and TV or Netflix. I thought about how much time I spend a week scrolling through Instagram and watching Hawaii Five-0 along with how many conversations I have a day and how many of them were not about furthering the the Lord’s kingdom.Compared to how much time I spent with the Lord, read His scripture, and putting His will into action.
I pray that we can all do God’s will on earth and that we continue to produce more and more fruit and cut out unnecessary things out of our lives to focus on the Lord.
