Lent Day 31 Growing Strong

Reading

John 15.1-4: Jesus the True Vine
[Jesus said] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

Reflection

Jesus was so completely submitted to the will of God that God’s power flowed through him and poured out into the world. If we want to bring real love and peace to our world, then we need that same power. We can’t do it on our own steam because our limited human resources soon run dry. But how do we get the power we need? Jesus said, ‘Abide in me, as I abide in you.’ We must be like a branch on the vine, or like a plug in a socket. We abide in Jesus by bringing ourselves to him all the time and ‘plugging in’. We don’t have to live in a monastery to do this – we can do it in our ordinary daily lives, with some prayer, some reading of his words, some exercises just like this one and most of all, an attitude of obedience to his commands. When we bring ourselves to Jesus like this, his spirit has a chance to grow in us, and our lives will begin automatically to reveal his love and ‘bear fruit’.

Spiritual Exercise

Your to-do for today: A great way to ‘abide’ in Jesus in a busy day is to use a Bible verse as the screensaver on your phone. Write out a verse by hand (this makes you focus), then take a photo of it and upload it as your screensaver. You could change the verse every now and then. This way you will be constantly reminded throughout the day of our Lord’s word.