Connected to the Vine, Our Power Source

The Green Vineyard (1888) by Vincent Van Gogh

I wrote this devotional for our women's ministry a few months ago, and thought I would share it here in case it can be an encouragement to other women who read the blog.  

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I cannot count how many times I was sitting right next to my phone charger while my unplugged  phone dwindled down to 1%. The charger was often within an arm’s reach, but I wouldn’t notice until it was almost too late. In a much bigger way, I can also forget where my power source is in my own life. I often run around from one busy task to another throughout the day, running out of my own power. The immediate urgency of “just one more thing” can cloud my judgment to see when I need to stop, rest, and recharge. Or sometimes I would love to rest, but it’s those around me that require my attention that can keep me from feeling I have time to recharge. Whatever the reason and whatever it may look like, when I am running on my own power, I inevitably end up running on empty. For me, this ends up leading to feelings of exhaustion, overstimulation, overwhelm, and if left unchecked, even seasons of anxiety and depression. 

But the good news is that the power source is an arm’s reach away.  The God of the universe is near to us through the Holy Spirit, ready and willing to empower us for all He has called us to do. We don’t have to try to live this life in our own quickly depleting power since we are daughters of the Almighty God. Jesus calls Himself the vine in John 15 and He calls His followers to “abide” in Him as the branches: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (verse 5). He repeats the word “abide” ten times in the first sixteen verses, so He must be trying to get it through to His disciples’ (and our own) minds and hearts as if He was saying it in all caps, in bold font, and underlined. It must be just a tad important, right? The Greek word  is translated to mean “remain, endure,  wait, dwell”, and (I love this definition) “to be held, kept, continually”. Abiding is resting in the power source, recharged in His power rather than our own. Jesus follows this up with giving us a glimpse into the result of abiding in Him: abounding joy! “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (verse 11).  

Abiding in Jesus means remembering where the power comes from – God the Father made a way to adopt us into His family, grafted in as branches now connected to the Vine, who is Jesus. When Jesus returned to the Father in heaven, He promised He would always be with us (Mathew 28:20) and left the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of that promise to live inside us.  He truly is Emmanuel, God with us! And only when we are tethered to Him, resting and recharging in His power can we bear any fruit. There’s a sweet kid’s Bible song that has a verse: “Apples don’t grow on pear trees. No apples there! It only grows pears”. Just as unlikely is it that we would grow the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 if we are abiding more in our own busyness, bitterness, or disobedience rather than abiding in Jesus. 

In a sermon on the fruit of the spirit, Reverend Billy Graham says these powerful words:

 ”I cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit by my own strength. I cannot love, I cannot have joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance by myself. I have no power. But this Holy Spirit, who lives in me since I received Christ as my Savior, is the one who gives me the power to love. He gives me the joy. He gives me the peace. He gives me the patience. He bears the fruit in my life.” He goes on to say that when we give our lives in complete surrender to God, the Holy Spirit’s power will be in us, because, as 1 John 4:4 promises us, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”. 

God is glorified when we bear fruit and are part of what He is doing in this world. We cannot do that when we are unplugged from Him and running on empty. When we abide in Him, charged and empowered and rested in His unlimited power, then we can experience a fruitful, joyful life, even amidst busyness and hard circumstances. We are part of the Vine, grafted in because of the saving and redeeming work of Jesus, and none of the enemy’s schemes can remove us from Him. Tara-Leigh Cobble of The Bible Recap says it so well: “The more we are aware of our need for Him, the more we will delight in His nearness and provision, and the more our hearts remember that He’s where the joy is!” Yes! What a joy it is to be connected, near our God, humbly aware of our limitations and in awe that He has no limit to His power

 

1. Do you ever have seasons when you feel you are running on your own power or on the influences of the world around you?
2. What are some practical steps to remembering to abide in Him, by resting and recharging in His power? Are there any spiritual disciplines that have helped draw you near to Him amidst your everyday busyness?
3. What are some things that deplete your energy? Are there any ways to prayerfully decrease (or remove) these?
4. Who has pointed you to God’s power recently?  It could be a pastor’s message, song, podcast,  book, friend, or even a child.
5. Can you share a time when you felt empowered by God in a way that helped you get through a tough situation or season? How did you feel His nearness?