Welcome to Joni and Friends. I’m your host, Joni Eareckson Tada.
It was a chilly afternoon last week when Ken and I visited our church friend, Tim. He grows several rare varieties of grapes on the hillside behind his house. I was surprised when I saw that his vines grow along a steep and rocky portion of the hill. I asked him, I said, “Why didn’t you plant the vines at the base of the hill? I mean, look the soil looks better – there’s certainly more sun.”
That’s when Tim smiled and he said, “Joni, there’s a rule you need to remember when it comes to growing these special varieties of grapes. Because when you feed them luxuriously with lots of nutrients and fertilizer, the vine will produce a profuse bush of leaves and cane, but the fruit it grows is sparse and poor. To be sure, the plant loves lots of fertilizer. But it invests all those nutrients into growing lush, beautiful leaves. When the vine has finished, it has little energy left to produce fruit. It looks like a beautiful vine, but that’s about it. It only looks good.”
“Well, then,” I asked him, “How do you get good grapes?” That’s when Tim explained, “You have to make the grapevine struggle! You plant it in rocky, flinty soil, or you girdle the vine by wrapping wires around the cordons, forcing the plant to fight as it draws nutrients from its roots. This causes the distressed vine to divert its prized and hard-won nutrients into the fruit, instead of the leaves. And the result of these tribulations is the sweetest fruit possible!”
Now, doesn’t that remind you of John 15 where Jesus says to his followers, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” You glorify God when you bear fruit. And you prove yourself to be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ when you do that. So it goes without saying, I’d like you to be bearing fruit in your life… patience and perseverance which backs up your faith, and your word of witness… I want you to be bearing the fruit of joy and love for others… and winning people to the side of the Savior as they observe the way your life truly reflects what you say. Bear fruit like that, and you’ll be glorifying God and proving yourself to be an authentic Christian.
So here’s the thing, friend, maybe the rocky soil and maybe the steep inclines in your life are not so bad. The Bible’s right – God’s got this vineyard and Jesus is the vine, and you are the branch, and the Father is the vine dresser. And no one – absolutely no one is better at growing fruit that lasts than the Lord Jesus, right? So agree with him. The struggles, disappointments, and setbacks you face, this “girdling” that presses you in… it is a bruising of a blessing. There’s a lot of perseverance, peace, genuineness of faith, long suffering, and self-control that God wants to produce in your life like beautiful fruit. So embrace even the steep inclines and the pressures, the pain and the difficulties. It is the best way to ensure you’ll bear fruit this season because you’re not just a pretty, leafy, green believer, you’re out there to bear God’s fruit to his glory.
Write me today, would you? At P.O. Box 3333, Agoura Hills, CA 91376 or you can always visit Joni’s Corner at joniandfriends.org.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
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