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 anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. John 15: 5-6
Growing up I loved to climb trees; the higher I could get the better. It didn’t take long for me to learn that I needed to test the branches before I placed all my weight on them. Some old and strong looking branches are notorious for being dead. They are still part of the tree but they stopped drawing nutrients from it a long time ago. They are hanging on there going through the motions of being a living branch; put a little weight on them and you will soon find out they are nothing but a stick. They break under the pressure and fall to the ground.
Jesus is the tree and we as Christians are the branches. When we are abiding in Him, drawing from His power we are strong and sturdy. When the winds blow and the pressures of life press upon us, we may bend and moan but we will remain steadfast and strong through Christ’s power. We are branches and we are alive and exuberant!
At times in our lives we start leaning on our own power, our own thoughts, and our own abilities. We think we really have it all figured out; we have a plan and we are fired up and ready to conquer the world. Then the winds come and the storm presses upon us and we realize, through our own power we are only a stick. Sure sticks make great pretend swords or baseball bats and they have many practical uses; the problem with sticks is, well they’re dead.
So in your walk with Christ right now, are you a branch or a stick? Are you leaning on the power of God to supply your strength and your needs? Or have you taken matter into your own feeble hands? If you do a self review and find, “golly gee, I’ve become a stick!”, don’t panic; turn to Jesus and He will renew you once again. He loves to restore dead sticks back into living branches!
