Bear much fruit

Do I bear much fruit?  Hmm…that is a good question, one that I don’t think about very much.

Mike Murdock says “The quality of your preparation determines the quality of your performance.”  I like to use this quote for everything in life, including our grapevines.

The house we live in belonged to Bill’s grandparents, and it came with a row of grapevines.  These grapes came from Bill’s Great Grandparents from Hungary.  We didn’t know anything about how to care for grapes, and we still don’t.  We just know that they need cut back every spring, and covered up if frost is in the forecast.  Sometimes we do those things, sometimes we don’t.  I think in 10 years we’ve had a harvest 3 times.  Now, this not entirely our fault, we’ve been hit by frost in the spring, hail storms, too much rain, too little rain, Japanese Beetles and who knows what else?!  Since these grapevines have such a special historical family value, you would think that we would be researching everything we could to make these the best grapevines ever.  But we don’t, we barely give them a thought. So, we should not be surprised that we don’t bear much fruit.

John 15:5 says “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” I came across this scripture the other day - and I’ve heard it many times before, but it really impacted me this year because we have grapes. I’ve been picking them and freezing the fruit so that this winter I can make some delicious grape jelly for my family.

So how do I bear much fruit?  It seems simple enough - preparation, work, dedication.  This applies not only to the grapevine, but also to my own life.  I need to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33) or how about “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)…? Sometimes we design jewelry with ourselves in mind and the accessories that we need to wear: like this Stainless Steel cuff bracelet (item code AAC6), or this stainless steel pendant (item code AAN6), or this stainless ring (item code RSSB).�I need this reminder of “Be still…” so that I may bear much fruit.  Being “still” takes time, work and dedication. The quality of my preparation determines the quality of my fruit.

Galatians 5:22-23 says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” This is the fruit I need to cultivate and work for in my life, because it’s not going to happen by itself.