The Vine and the Vinedresser (Daily Devotional)

Greetings! It is our joy and privilege to be able to come to you this week and spend some time in God’s word and in prayer together. I feel this week, we can take some time to look at a very familiar passage from the 15th chapter of John and we will make our journey through the first eight verses. This a very familiar passage where Jesus talks about the vine, the vinedresser, and the branches- He uses this illustration to speak to us about some very important spiritual truths. As we begin to examine what the Lord Jesus spoke to us in John chapter 15, verse 1 through 8, we need to keep in mind how the Lord Jesus used illustrations from our world to teach us spiritual/ kingdom things. He left it to us to understand the illustration and receive the truth He wanted us to pursue. Of course, we need to be careful while doing this, we don’t want to take the illustrations in directions He never intended to go but to stay with the main truth that He wanted to convey to us. This is what we will intend to do as we talk about the vine, the vinedresser, and the branches.

So, in John 15 and verse 1, Jesus begins by saying ‘I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser’. He introduces something very important to us as He used the illustration of the vine, the vinedresser, and the branches. He points to Himself as the vine- the vine is the source of life, of strength, of nutrients to the branches. The branches are likened to us, and we are connected to the vine. It is through the vine, that the source of life, nutrients is provided to the branches. Notice how Jesus says ‘I am the true vine’; it is in Him that we find the true source of life, nourishment and nurturing and is the cause by which we can bear fruit. Sometimes when we are not careful, we may try to plug into/ draw our source from that which is not true. Therefore, our goal as believers is to stay focused on the true vine- the Lord Jesus Christ. The world and people around us may point to other things as potential sources of life, nutrients, strength, of meaning, purpose and so on but we must be clear as Jesus said, ‘I am the true vine’, He is the real source. We need to be very clear and plug into the true source- Jesus; from Him comes our life and everything we need to be fruitful in life as we will talk about in the coming days. The Lord Jesus also pointed to the Father being the vinedresser- the caretaker who is watching over everything to make sure the vine and the branches bring forth fruit. So, we need to look to God knowing that He is the one overseeing our lives, who will work things out in our lives causing us to be fruitful while we do our part to stay connected to the true vine. As we begin this week, take a moment to ponder today about this- Jesus is the true vine, the Father is the vinedresser- overseeing our Iife and we make a deliberate choice to stay connected to the true vine and we submit ourselves to the vinedresser who oversees our life. Let’s pray together, Lord we thank you that as we embark on this journey this week to understand and receive spiritual truth, through these words that you have spoken Lord, open our hearts, open our understanding and may we always be connected and committed to the true vine and may we know that the father is the vinedresser overseeing our lives, doing all that is necessary to make us fruitful and so we submit to you, work in us today, In Jesus name, Amen.

Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week's theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week's devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.