Pray that the Lord would teach you to abide. Pray that He would teach you to depend on Him for everything in your life. Give thanks that you have a vinedresser Who desires to see you be as fruitful as can be. Finally, pray for your brother and sister in Christ that they would do the same. Pray for the church as a whole that we would all abide in the Lord with sincere hearts.......

When it comes to making a battle plan toward abiding in the Lord, we have to ask what it means even to abide. It is easy to talk around abiding in the Lord but it becomes more difficult to ascertain what that really means.Abiding means to dwell. We are to dwell in the vine and dwell in His word. Another sense of the word can be described as belonging. He is the source of my strength and my being. ...

I have found a temptation that sits deep within me that has been a common motivation for me in my walk with the Lord. It is that I think I have something worth bringing to the table. I think I have something I can contribute to the Lord. This passage always humbles me.5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.-Joh...

As the lesson of the disciples not being able to do anything to please God in it of themselves, Jesus is showing them how to become pleasing to the Lord. In modern audiences, we have this strange belief that we simply cannot be pleasing to the Lord. This was not the case for the original audience. They not only believed they should be pleasing to God. They believed they could. So it was a two-fold...

There has been a lot of emphasis of imitation from Jesus to His disciples. As Jesus prepares to depart, He is reinforcing them with what they must do in order to continue Jesus' mission of bringing the Kingdom of God forward. To this effect, Jesus brings up an analogy that they would have a decent amount of understanding about. Vineyards and vines were a major part of the ancient Mediterranean lif...

The image Jesus draws in this passage is a clear one. He is still in conversation with His disciples, which is an important thing given some of what Jesus is saying here. Many people believe that Scripture has to apply to all people at all times. That simply is not true, and this passage will demonstrate that.Jesus introduces Himself as the true vine, and His Father as the vine dresser. He then, i...

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in...

I encourage you to pray for the Lord's peace. Accept what He desires to give to you. Lay your anxieties before Him. Call them out by name and rejoice in the Lord. Acknowledge by faith that the Lord desires for you to have peace in Him. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.......

As I shared in yesterday's devotion, fear and focus go hand in hand. I have found for myself that those times of anxiety are most dominant when my focus is off of the Lord. Even worse, I find it thrives when focus is upon myself. Consider these verses:3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you lo...

Scripture deals with a lot of difficult moments throughout time. We see wars, persecutions, famines, and the like. We also see the Lord wanting to protect His people and encourage them. We see Him give His people peace in the midst of turmoil, and hope in the midst of judgment. Especially as I read through John, I see this trend of Jesus desiring for His disciples to be encouraged despite the surm...

The lesson for the original audience comes out of the question that Judas is asking."Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"-John 14:22The response is two-fold to this. Jesus will be made manifest in their love, and Jesus will be made manifest by the Holy Spirit who is to be given to them. This provokes the desire to walk in love and to bear the Spirit within ...

Similar to the previous week, there is an overarching theme throughout the book of John that emphasizes belief, love, and obedience. All of these are still present here. Something that I find to be interesting as we look at these is the gut reaction to try to carefully handle the obedience topic to prove that I am not talking about a works based salvation. I'll instead make a very clear statement ...

This section continues off of the interaction that Jesus is having with His disciples. Judas, who is specified as not being Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus, presses Jesus on more questions. The last thing Jesus had said is that He would manifest Himself to His disciples. So Judas presses into this. He asks how Jesus would manifest Himself to them but not to the world? Judas caught on to...

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.25 “Th...

Pray for an increase of a measure of faith and trust in the Lord. Pray that the Lord would send His Holy Spirit to you. Pray for wisdom and strength to walk out His commands. Take this time with the Lord and give Him thanks.......