The True Gardener

The True Gardener “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 Last fall as I was cutting down some small trees on the back of our property, there was one large tree that appeared to be dead. As I began to cut away all the dead branches, this revealed many living green branches underneath. In fact when I was done cutting off all the dead branches it looked like a different healthy tree. This is the way God uses us, as He cuts off the dead branches in our lives that bears no fruit, as shown in the scripture above, and prunes back the ones that hides our faith with unbecoming behaviors and faulty character traits. The cutting away of these behaviors, and correcting our faulty character traits may be painful, but the results make us healthy and beautiful. We are all lacking in some way, and have fallen short of being the kind of people we should be. Getting rid of the bad habits, correcting our flaws, and then living the kind of life we should live, makes us a better person. John 15:5 “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Genuine salvation is evidenced by a life of fruitfulness. We produce no fruit when we don't have Christ in our life. A branch out of contact with the vine is lifeless, but we can bear much fruit when we accept Jesus as our savior, as genuine salvation is evidenced by a life of fruitfulness. We can begin to produce fruit in our communities, our workplaces, with our friends and neighbors, and all that we come into contact with. We can bear fruit for Christ, as we can reach out to others, and show them we care about them and love them. When we begin to reach out to others, God will begin to fill our lives with His blessings. Robert W. Brock My Daily Devotional Volume Seven​ March 21