Abiding in the Vine

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." John 15:4

Do you ever feel dull, bland, um fruitless? I do! There are times when I just have such a blah feeling about myself, a bored feeling. I'm not talking about self-esteem, but rather that I'm producing anything of value. It's almost always a surprise to me when I get in that state, that I'm even like that. Then I start to think, "when was the last time I spent any real time in the Word or in prayer?"

I don't know about anybody else, but there are too many times when I just go through the motions of reading the Bible. There are times when my prayers are nothing more than a "thank you for the day" and "I would like....". Then there are also those times when I have to stop and think about when was the last time I even read my Bible or prayed sincerely. Honestly, these times come far too often.

Yet, the fruitless feelings that I experience are unpleasant, they are good because they remind me that I need to abide in Him. They draw my back to the Word and back into prayer. This happened recently, and as I opened my Bible I found myself staring down at the words of John 15. Honestly, I  haven't been able to move on to chapter 16 yet. I keep rereading the words of John 15, especially this section about the branches and the vine. God is trying to speak something into me through this chapter, something deeper than the obviousness of the words.

Let God draw you to His Word, to a particular section. Let Him speak something deep inside of you based and abide in Him there. He has different words for each of us, and words for us in different seasons of our lives. Abide in Him and find out what Word He is developing in you, what Word He is revealing to you, what Word He is equipping you through. Be the branch that abides in Him.