.....remains

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing... Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. John 15:5, 8

A corrupt tree cannot force out good fruit, no matter how much it strains. Adam and Eve blaming instead of confessing, David simply saying "I have sinned" and finding mercy waiting, the difference between godly sorrow that moves us forward and worldly shame that leaves us hiding, works of the flesh that can be suppressed by willpower while the heart underneath stays unchanged, fruit that doesn't need an audience to keep growing, and Abraham — flawed, inconsistent, yet still called righteous because his faith, not his record, was what God was counting.

Fruit is never something we manufacture. It's something that grows. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 that Paul calls it fruit, not fruits. Love, joy, peace, and everything else on that list aren't separate achievements to check off one at a time. They rise together from a single root — abiding in Christ.

Jesus makes one more promise worth carrying: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. John 15:16 "That your fruit should remain" — not fruit that impresses for a season and then withers under the next failure, the next Abraham-like stumble, the next moment your imperfection stares back at you. Fruit rooted in abiding doesn't depend on a flawless track record to keep growing. It depends on staying connected to the Vine.

A Question to Sit With: What's one place where you've been striving to manufacture fruit through performance — and what would it look like instead to simply stay abiding, and let it grow?

Lord Jesus, thank You for a week that kept turning me back to this one truth — that fruit grows, it isn't forced. I don't want performance anymore. I want a life so rooted in You that what grows is genuinely Yours. Let it remain, long after this week ends. In Jesus' name,