Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Confidence”
Our Bible verse for today: “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NKJV)
Our thought for today: “Abide in Jesus; be confident in God.”
Are you doing the things God wants you to do with your life? Are you sure? A better question would be “how” can you be sure? I speak with people all the time who are not sure they’re doing the things God wants them to do. Many Christians live with a deep-seated sense of guilt that God wants and expects more from them than they’re giving. “Am I supposed to be a Sunday school teacher; a street evangelist; a missionary to Timbuktu?” “Is God disappointed with me because I’m not doing those things?”
In John 15:5 Jesus gave us some crucial insight into this question. He compared Himself to a grape vine and us to the branches that grow from the vine. Just as the life of the vine flows out through the branches, and the fruit of the vine is then produced through the branches, so too the life of Jesus flows through us and the fruit of Jesus (works) is produced through us. All the branch has to do is remain firmly attached to the vine. It is the vine that actually produces the fruit.
So the key then is to “abide” in Jesus and He then will produce the fruit He desires through us. To “abide” means to stay with, to live with. To abide “in” Jesus suggests that our life exists within Him. He is our life. To remain firmly attached to Him is accomplished by means of a daily practice of the basic spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, worship, meditation, fellowship, service, etc.
When we do those things, the life of Jesus flows in us and through us, and the fruit of Jesus gets produced in our lives. That fruit could take the form of teaching Sunday school, or preaching on a street corner, or caring for lepers in the slums of Calcutta. But whatever form it takes, Jesus will be the one to decide that. He is the branch, and it is His fruit not yours. It’s not up to you to decide what kind of fruit you “want” to produce, or you think you “should” be producing. It is up to you to abide in Jesus and then let Him produce in your life whatever it is He wants to produce.
This can be a difficult concept for us to grasp and therefore it’s one we need to spend time with. On Sunday evening March 22nd at 6:00 at Oak Hill Baptist Church we will begin a six week Bible study by Rick Warren entitled, “What in the World Am I Here For?” This study will go a long way towards helping us to understand how Jesus works in our lives and it will help us to gain the confidence to simply relax and let Him do what it is He wants to do. I invite you to join us.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 