Key Verse: John 15:5 

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” 

If you have ever done any gardening you are probably familiar with tomatoes. I feel that both amateurs and experts plant tomatoes. They start off small but they grow very quickly, and before long what started off as a small plant with some leaves on it turns into this large plant that has to be supported by a cage or a stake. Each branch will produce numerous tomatoes. However, for that branch to produce fruit, it has to stay connected to the main vine. The same is true for us in regards to producing the fruits of the spirit in our life. If we want our life to be characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control then we have to stay connected to Jesus. He is the vine as he says in this verse, and if we are going to produce the fruits he wants us to in this life then we have to stay connected to him. That is the reason many us are failing to have a life characterized by the fruits of the Spirit, and Jesus tells us that at the end of the verse, “for without me you can do nothing.” If being attached to Jesus is required to produce the fruits of the Spirit, how do we do that? In this text he tells us to abide. The Greek word literally means to remain. That means we have to remain in Christ, we have to remain in him step for step. We are enabled to do this as we read and study His Word and also as we prioritize being a people of prayer! 

So if you are struggling to be the person God is calling you to be, then it’s likely you are not remaining in Christ. You are not attached to the vine. We abide with Jesus, we stay in sync with Him through prayer and reading His Word. These are the means through which the Holy Spirit produces His fruit in our life so I ask you, are you doing these things?