Tethered
“I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father. He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest. The words I have spoken over you have already cleansed you. John 15
When you are a farmer, you are invested in your plants. They become like your babies. When you see one beginning to struggle you don’t just pull it out of the ground to throw it away. No, you prop it up off the ground. You give it special attention. You study and examine your plant baby. How can I help it thrive and mature?
In John 15 we know Jesus is the sprouting Vine, and the Father, who we refer to as Abba (dada in Aramaic) is the farmer. Jesus is telling us when we as beloved sons and daughters struggle the Father comes to us to give us special attention. He definitely doesn’t throw us away or push us to the side. The beautiful thing about this relationship with the Father is we sometimes can’t see the areas we are not bearing fruit in, but He does. He is so faithful to not leave us there to struggle. Even the areas we are fruitful he comes to prune us so we can bear more. The word prune in the Greek means to cleanse. This isn’t necessarily from something bad. This can be a way of thinking about ourselves or Him. His heart is to always see us thriving because He loves us and, in our thriving, we bring glory to Him.
“So you must remain in life-union with me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine. “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches. As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless.” John 15
Remember yesterday we talked about connecting our hearts to Jesus first thing in the morning? When we continuously connect to Him, we are remaining in life-union with Him. He never leaves us. He says, “I REMAIN in life-union with you,” we hear Pastor Tim tells us all the time, the Father is not the weak link. We have our part to do and that is remaining intimately joined to Jesus. If we are not intimately joined to Jesus, we cannot bring our sacrifices of prayer to the altar. We are powerless without intimacy. Intimacy is the level where we are known at the deepest of who we are. This level of intimacy requires the greatest amount of trust. We can know in this close, intimate relationship with Jesus, we can trust Him with the depths of who we are and where we struggle. He will never reject you for any reason.
We as beloved sons and daughters can no longer live our lives in separate containers. This container has work, this one has family, this one has friends, this one has church and Jesus. We must start and remain with Jesus daily and everything else flows from that central place in our lives.
Tether yourself to Jesus. Remain in life-union. This is our responsibility. He does the rest.
