Grafted to God …

So many of us live our lives running at full bore on our own power, and it’s only when that fails us (which it does quickly and routinely) that we may cry out to God.

Trying to live that way doesn’t make for a life.

Jesus taught us there is a way to have fullness of life, one that can endure all the experiences of this life and still be fruitful. It’s a life of being grafted into Him …

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5.

In his book, “Be Joyful,” pastor Warren Wiersbe points to faith in God as that vital, invisible nutrient for life we all need …

All of nature depends on hidden resources. The great trees send their roots down into the earth to draw up water and minerals. Rivers have their sources in the snow-capped mountains. The most important part of a tree is the part you cannot see, the root system. And the most important part of the Christian’s life is the part that only God sees. Unless we draw upon the deep resources of God by faith, we fail against the pressures of life.

Clive Staples Lewis was more succinct in speaking to our vital need to be grafted to God when he wrote, “Once a man is united to God how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?”

Taylor Hudson helps us understand that both our peace and fruitfulness depend on our faith in Jesus Christ, the same way a branch depends on a vine …

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.”

Do you live each day as a branch grafted into Jesus Christ, who is the vine of life? By faith, do you draw upon the full resources of God to navigate this life?

Scotty