The Sap

"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." John 15:5 (NIV)

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I thought fruit was something I produced by trying harder.

I strained toward it the way a branch might strain toward blossoms it has no power to make on its own.

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But it was never my effort. It was Your life, flowing through me the way sap carries a vine's own nature into every branch it touches.

I do not manufacture the fruit. I only stay attached, and You do what sap has always done, moving unseen, carrying everything the vine is into everything the branch becomes.

I called my striving fruitfulness.

It was You, quietly, doing what only life itself can do.

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Forgive me for treating abiding like a task instead of a relationship.

I cannot make fruit.

I can only stay close to the Vine, and let You flow.

Sap of the Vine, flow through me today. I only ask to stay attached.

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A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Thank You, Holy Spirit, for carrying His life into mine like sap into a branch.

Thank You for fruit that is Yours to produce, not mine to force.

Teach me simply to abide. Amen.

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