One surefire way of ushering peace into our lives is to spend quiet time with God. But as the world would have it, quiet moments are hard to find, but that’s okay too because the Lord is available to listen twenty-four hours a day—while we walk, run, sit in traffic, shop at the grocery store, or stare at a wall. He is waiting to hear from you, to touch and bless you for your efforts to get to know Him better. He is a deep well of peace and understanding.
Jesus gave up His life for us. He is the bridge between us and our Father. That alone makes me want to spend time with Him. He gave it all so we could have it all—and He is all we truly need. Building intimacy with the Lord is a lifetime journey. The more time we spend with Him, the more centered we become. There is no secret method to bring you closer to the living God other than pouring out your heart to Him, drawing near to Him, and asking Him to pull you in deeper with Him.
Bearing Fruit
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” —John 12:24 (NIV)
If you’re familiar with gardening in the least, you know that a seed needs to die before it can be planted. It needs to be dried up—merely a shell of itself—before you can place it into fertile, damp soil, cover it in a blanket of darkness, and warm it with the sun’s love. Slowly, ever so slowly but surely, a prickling of life will appear. In the right season, at the right time and not one second prior, a green fragile shoot will begin to poke through the ground. Days of sunshine, rain, the attentive care of the gardener, will help grow that seedling into a beautiful fruit tree—that, once again when the time is right and the season arrives, it will bear beautiful, luscious fruit to share with the world.
It’s nature’s way. It’s God’s way. The Lord penned that analogy in His indelible Word for a reason. YOU are that seed. When you wholly surrender your life to Christ and submit to obedience, you die to self and become like Christ. He is the fertile soil, the sun, the water, the ever-attentive gardener. He is there to watch over you. He is there to prune the dead branches if needed (lust, greed, anger, deceit, addiction just to name a few) to ensure that you produce quality spiritual fruit.
When you intimately know Him, you are growing spiritually. He is working to ready you for a harvest, the likes of which you could never see coming. He is preparing you for a marvelous and wonderful assignment—one in which only YOU can accomplish. God didn’t call a few or a select group. He called us all and challenged us to go and preach the good news to the entire world. Shine your light. Be fruitful for Him. Go and shout the good news any way you can.
He gave us another example, too. This time it links us directly to Christ. John 15:5 reads: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” (NIV)
The word remain means the same as abides, or obeys in this case. Jesus is asking us to dwell in Him obediently. He is letting us know that without Him our efforts are fruitless. Jesus likens Himself to a vine that delivers a life force straight into us. As long as we remain grafted to His body, we are infused with His power to do great and miraculous deeds. He is attaching us to His very being and allowing His light and glory to shine through us as we bear much fruit.
My grandmother had a vineyard. When she grafted one branch onto a master vine, it took some time and the right care for it to bud with fruit of its own. We are like that branch. Jesus is telling us that with the right care, we too will see positive fruits of love, restoration, sharing the gift of Christ, joy and abundance.
Have you ever heard anyone say that we are the body of Christ? Well, you are in the spiritual sense. We are more than a friend, a created being. We are a part of the body of Christ. How overwhelmingly awesome in the truest sense. He loves us so much that He has invited us to be a part of Him. And more than that, He longs to work through us to help heal a dark and hurting world.
Your fruit matters.
You matter.
No one can fulfill the unique purpose He has set for you to accomplish. Your journey is as unique as the fruit you’ll bear. The world needs you to follow Christ, become a part of Him, so He can shine through you like a laser that envelops the world in the brightest of lights.
Grace
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. —2 Corinthians 12:8-9 (NIV)
Paul had some extravagant revelations given to him. He knew things that certainly made him special and
