I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  John 15:5-6 HCSB

I want us to take a moment to consider our day to day lives. If you plugged yourself into our scripture passage, would you be the branch that is thrown aside to wither and be tossed into the fire or are you the branch that bears much fruit?

Our pastor tells us that we should use this acronym for joy-Jesus first, others second, and yourself last. Is that what your calendar and checkbook would reveal about you? When we do this, it puts our lives in balance. When we make time for God and put Him first, He takes care of all that we do. He handles everything else for us. I even pray during busy days asking God to guard my time. I am amazed at the little things that happen to make my day go smoothly when I do this. One particular day I had a number of things to do. One of these things was getting my mom to a doctor’s appointment in the nearby town of Covington where the traffic is a nightmare. I had to get across town at lunchtime which in the past has taken me an hour. I had prayed for God to guard my time that day, but I found myself leaving later than I had planned for her appointment. Without the traffic, we would have had plenty of time. When we got to the main highway I was amazed. At 12:20, there was no traffic on this street. It literally looked like a ghost town compared to the normal bumper to bumper.  I even managed to catch only green lights and made it to her doctor’s office with 20 minutes to spare for her 1:00 appointment. Only God can do that my friend. It’s those little things throughout the day that I so appreciate.

God is so good to me, but I don’t want Him asking me, “What have you done for me lately?” This is why God gets the very first part of my mornings. God gets the first ten percent of my paycheck when it hits my account. This is where that whole Him remaining in me and me remaining in Him comes in.

But the really important thing is the fruit that we produce. Just the other day our pastor said that we were not saved to sit, but we were saved to serve. God saved us from the bondage of sin and the eternal fires of hell in order that we might serve Him and serve others. Are you doing that? Are your branches loaded down with good fruit for healing or are they bare?

Our scripture passage tells us that the branches that don’t produce fruit will be cut away and thrown into the fire. Lately I have been doing some spring cleaning in my upstairs and my garage. I have already made several trips to our local landfill and need to make at least one or two more. I have also had a few fires to burn boxes. I am ashamed to admit this, but there were things stored in my attic that had been put there and forgotten 20 years ago. Most of that went to the dump. Unless you are a hoarder, you get rid of what is useless, right?

So what I really want you to ask yourself today is this? Are you useless where God is concerned? Are you living a self-fulfilling life with no concern for God or those around you? If you profess to be a Christian and profess to be saved, then it should be obvious to those around you by the fruit that you bear. Titus 1:6 says, “They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” Our scripture passage tells us that if we are useless we will be cut away and thrown into the fire.

In John 15:2, Jesus tells us that God prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. We all must go through the pruning process from time to time. James 1:3 tells us that we should consider it a great joy when we are tested, because testing produces endurance. He goes on to say in verse four that endurance must do its complete work so that we will be mature, and complete lacking in nothing.

Maybe during a season of pruning, you got frustrated or angry with God. Get over it. God prunes us in order that we may become mature. He wants us to be mature Christians. He wants us to lead others to Him and to mentor them. We can’t do this if we remain at the baby Christian stage. Life is a series of trials and tribulations, but remember that God uses these to make us grow stronger and to produce more fruit. And don’t ever forget that all things, even the bad and the ugly work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Have a great day!