Vine

Daily Inspirational Thoughts

to bless your life.

~

A Daily Devotional

by

Beth McLendon

Monday - Thursday

Topic: 

Jesus is the Vine.

We are the Branches.

John chapter 15

Insights

Monday June 13, 2022

Gaining understanding

Consider these simple thoughts...

We are branches

and we need

spiritual nourishment

from

nutrients

that

Jesus the vine

provides.

We get nutrients as we

read the Bible,

pray,

sing to our Lord,

etc.

Tuesday June 14, 2022

The Fruit of the Spirit develops when we abide in Him.

Jesus is THE Vine.

WE are the branches.

The branches bear Fruit.

-

God the Father is the Vinedresser.

Amazing Insights into this topic...

Bearing Fruit

Means...

We bring forth

 The Fruit of the Spirit 

Galatians 5:22-23

- and other Good Fruit - 

As you draw nourishment

from Jesus,

you will spiritually mature

and thus...grow fruit.

Below are some examples.

Here are some ways

that

transformation occurs ...

When you are connected to the Peace vine

(Jesus is Peace)

and you intentionally draw peace from Jesus,

then you increase your peace.

For example,

As you

Pray for his peace,

Read Scriptures about his peace,

Yield to his peace in situations in life

then

you increase your peace.

So you are drawing more and more  

of the peace aspect of Jesus

into your life.

(See our Peace Prayers page for help in this area.)

 

A different way to present it...

 - Jesus is Love - 

As we

Read about his love,

Sing about his love,

Think about his love, etc.

we get nourishment

so that we become more loving.

(We produce more fruit of love in our actions and words.)

When you are connected to the love vine

(Jesus is love)

and you intentionally draw his strength to love

in difficult times...

then you will increase your agape love toward others.

(Agape love = the God-kind of love)

It also blesses us to FEEL loved by God. Example = Here

The following examples

do not

give

all the steps

like the examples above...

When you are connected to the patience vine

(Jesus is Patience)

and you intentionally draw strength to be patient

then you will become more and more patient.

---

When you are connected to the truth vine 

(Jesus is truth)

and you yield to Jesus

including yielding to the Words of the Bible

and

allow yourself to be a teachable person,

then you will gain truth.

When you are connected to the joy vine

(Jesus is Joy)

and you stir up the Joy of the Lord,

then you will increase your inner joy.

That inner joy is not dependent on circumstances.

For example, check out this page to stir up JOY ... Here

And now let's continue

with an

example

of the opposite:

When you are NOT connected to and intentionally drawing from

the truth vine -

you will be filled instead with worldly lies and confusion.

And

When you are not connected to and intentionally drawing from

the love vine

(Jesus is love)

then you will be full of selfishness.

Note:

Some people are born with a more loving nature

but we ALL

can improve greatly -

in our actions and especially in our thought life.

We gain and mature and are blessed

from

being connected to the vine (Jesus)

and

yielding to Jesus

(which results in drawing nourishment and growing).

Then we show forth

life-transforming aspects of Jesus...

and that not only blesses us

but it blesses others as well.

Life-Transforming Aspects such as  

true love to others, patience to others, wisdom to others, etc.

It takes time to show forth fruit.

You don't plant something and then come back the next day

and see mature fruit. 

God gives us abundant opportunities to grow fruit.

When he gives us opportunities,

we either

choose to yield to him

or we impede God and choose our own way.

We

Choose to do what we want

OR

Choose Obedience to God

Clarification...

We cannot make the fruit of love on our own.

We cannot sit around and say,

"I am growing Love. I am growing Love."

But we can

choose to yield to the Lord.

We yield to the Lord

and then

 - grow the fruit of love -

by reading his word, prayer, singing to him, etc.

and by

choosing loving actions and loving words.

So.... No,

we can't grow fruit on our own.

We must allow God's word to grow inside us.

But that isn't enough.

We can't just sit around

reading the Bible and singing and praying

and neglect to

make right choices toward others.

We must do the Father' will as expressed in the Bible -

just like Jesus did on earth.

Wednesday June 15, 2022

You would think that

the most Powerful Being

to ever walk the face of the earth

would come to earth

and do what he wanted to do.

Instead,

Jesus

came to earth to 

fully obey Father God

and sacrifice himself

for the blessing of each of us.

Obedience was Jesus Christ's daily goal.

And it is obedience that

he tells us is our goal. 

It is not through following my human daily desires

that I one day look like Jesus.

It is through following the

daily desires of my Heavenly Father

that I one day look like Jesus.

Psalm 23 says -

"He [God]

leadeth me

along the paths

of

righteousness

for HIS name sake."

Life is about HIM. 

And as

we grow spiritually,

we find ourselves

valuing

the same things that our Lord Jesus values.

If we follow Jesus,

we grow to love righteousness

and reject

the world's sinful ways.

Righteousness = Right living

Next

a Vine video

for you to share with your young loved ones.

Thursday June 16, 2022

God the Father is the Vinedresser.

The more he prunes us,

the higher quality of the fruit we bear.

Near the end of the next video,

the speaker tells us that information.

Pruning

As God guides us and prunes us,

he reshapes us

so we bear more good fruit

and so that we move toward our 

God-given destiny.

And in the video below,

we learn that

the vinedresser is working with

the branches

even in winter.

Whether we realize it or not

we are totally dependent on God.

Understanding that thought

brings us into a more humble mindset.

This page

concludes

with a 2-minute devotional video.

Also consider our pages:

God as Potter

God as a Sculptor

God as Silversmith

Thank you for visiting.

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