There is no zoom prayer room in July, we resume in August.
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “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. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
John 15:1-8
PRAYER GUIDE
Jesus makes two promises to us, each based on a condition. The first conditional promise is this: “If you remain in me, you will bear much fruit.” And the second is it’s opposite: “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”
When God makes a promise, He really means it. His promises are not like so many human promises, that fail over time. It is not possible for God to break his promises or to lie. So when Jesus promises we will bear much fruit, if we abide in Him…he means both parts. We really will bear fruit. Our lives will be fruitful. Not fruitful like a factory that churns out widgets 24/7, but fruitful like a grapevine, or a tree, that yields its fruit in season. There will be seasons of dormancy and winter and pruning. But there will be unmistakable fruit that issues from our lives. It is impossible for a healthy branch, embedded in the vine, to not bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the natural result of remaining. So he means it when we says we will bear fruit. But he also really means it when he says, “If.” We will only beaf fruit IF we go on abiding in Him. Fruitfulness is a conditional promise. If we want a fruitful life, we must meet one condition. Only one. We must abide.
The other conditional promise Jesus makes is the opposite corollary. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” That is to say Jesus is promising, that however hard we try and however much we want to, all our best efforts will fail to produce fruit…if we are apart from him. This too is a promise. There is no getting around it. We live in a world where lots of people are doing lots of things. Things that seem to be important. Things that seem to make a change. Things that gain the attention of others. That gain notoriety, fame, accolades. But don’t be deceived – if these people are doing these things apart from Jesus – they will amount to nothing in the grand scale. And so it is with us. We may think we can accomplish much apart from the Lord. But we need to take him at his word. In the words of the Instructor in Ecclesiastes, it is all vanity, a striving after the wind.
And so, our invitation this morning, is to take Jesus at his word. To recognize he means to keep his promise. And that the promise he makes to us is based on our decision – will we abide or will we do life apart from Him? And therefore, it behooves us to examine our manner of life over the past season – has it been a life of abiding or has it been a life of not abiding?
PRAYER PROMPTS:
- Ask the Spirit to search you. To reveal the habits and places in your life where you have done life on your own.
- Ask for faith and trust in Jesus’ promises…both the promise of fruit and the promise of barrenness.
- Ask God for fresh and holy resolve to do nothing on your own. Holy resolve to remain in Jesus through patterns and habits of prayer throughout the day.
- Invite Jesus to lead you and work through you in your work, whether that is a 9-5 job, a ministry calling, raising children, or whatever.
- Ask God for wisdom to order your life in a way that keeps you connected to him through the day.
- Begin to pray this for others in your life, your family, friends, loved ones.
- Pray this for the Big C church – that God’s people will resolve to abide so that we can bear much fruit.
In Our Time 