THE TETHER

Jesus chose the image of a vine and its branches to describe what the relationship between Himself and His disciples was supposed to look like, and it is worth paying really close attention to that picture long enough until we truly grasp what He was painting. A branch produces fruit by staying attached to the vine, because the vine is where the life is, and the branch has no life of its own to offer the fruit-bearing process. The branch's production of fruit is not by trying harder, nor is it by developing a stronger work ethic.

When Jesus said Abide in Me, He was not in any way giving a spiritual suggestion for people who have the time and temperament for contemplative living. What He was describing was the one condition on which everything else in the Christian life depends, because He followed it immediately with the statement that "without Me you can do nothing". That word nothing means that the branch which has detached itself from the vine is producing none, regardless of how much activity it is generating.

David understood the connection between nearness to God and fullness of joy long before Jesus put it in the language of vine and branches, writing in Psalm 16:11 that "in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore". The joy David was describing was the product of proximity to God and a life that had found in Him the one place where joy is not borrowed or temporary but genuinely full. Joy cannot be the product of favourable circumstances if it is to be true, and David's life had very few of those for long stretches at a time.

The tether is the whole thing. Stay connected, and everything the vine has flows into the branch. Disconnect, and no amount of effort produces what only the connection can give.

REFLECT
• In what area of your life have you been trying to produce fruit through effort rather than through staying connected to Jesus?
• What does abiding in Jesus look like practically for you this week, and what one thing would help you do it more consistently?

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I want to stay. I want to be a branch that remains so consistently connected to You that Your life flows naturally into everything I do. Teach me what it means to abide, and let that be the foundation of everything else. Amen.

TODAY'S READING: John 15:4-5; Psalm 16:11