Abide in the Vine

We’re glad that you found your way to the Being Renewed blog of New Life Fellowship Church. Romans 12:2 directs believers in Christ Jesus to be transformed - into the image of Christ - by the renewing of our minds. In these posts we look forward to sharing insights and personal testimonies about the renewal process at New Life. Our first post comes from Micah Jorgenson on bearing fruit as we abide in Christ. 

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:7-8

What are the fruits God wants us to bear? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. God is glorified when our lives are producing this kind of fruit. God is looking to show people His glory and He wants to do it through us - which is quite an amazing thing! God does not want us to live lives that are full of anxiety, discouragement, self-centeredness, irritability, harshness, flippancy, and mindless indulgence. Why? Because that kind of life does not glorify Him. Glorifying God is what you and I were made for. The Bible says whether I eat or drink or whatever I do - do it all to the glory of God. However, we cannot get it into our minds that we are going to go out daily and just start popping these fruits out of our lives by our own willpower. A tree does not push and strain for fruit to come out - it simply abides, just soaks up the sun and the nutrients of the soil.  Don’t think you are just going to get up in the morning and get moving about your day with a prayerless spirit and an empty soul and be able to produce the fruits that glorify God. Glorifying God takes abiding in Him and letting His Word abide in you. As you soak up the Word, as you move your soul closer to God, what is in Christ, the vine, will be in you, the branch.