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.
John 15:5
This school year I am attending a Bible/book study that digs deeper into why we homeschool. The books we read for September were When a Nation Forgets God by Erwin Lutzer and Let Us Highly Resolve by David Quine. Talk about starting the year off with a bang!
I mentioned before just how much I was enjoying Let Us Highly Resolve, but I wanted to share with you the highlight of the book for me…
Page 74
Now, I’m one of those people who scrawls all over books. I write in the margins, I underline, I put little exclamation marks next to things that really strike me as important to remember. Let’s just say this page is rather marked up!
And what is so important about the contents of this page? This page brought me to my knees…literally…and liberated me from myself.
If you’ve been a reader of Raising Arrows for long, you know just how big I am on changing things in order to make them work for you. I’m not a sit-on-your-laurels kind of gal. If I see something that isn’t working in our family, I brainstorm and try new things until something does work.
As a fix-it kind of person, I find that I have a tendency to believe I can control the fruits of the Spirit, forcing them to bloom to maturity at will. If I just try hard enough, work long enough, and weed out enough stuff, I will see fruit. While there is something to be said for taking initiative in life, when you believe YOU can do it all on your own, you ultimately leave God out of the equation.
Page 74 opened my eyes to what I had been doing.
On this page, David Quine talks of living moment by moment in the Spirit. He refers to John 15:5, telling the reader to stop trying to be the vine and rest in the True Vine as the branch God created us to be. He says,
The vine has got to do the work, and the branch enjoys the fruit of it.
The fruit of the Spirit is a result of the Holy Spirit residing in me and not something I create. I’ve been so busy trying to be the vine, I failed to realize it isn’t my job.
So, in the verbiage used by Quine throughout the entirety of his book,
I am resolved…
resolved to stop trying to do this all on my own,
resolved to live in the Spirit moment by moment,
resolved to be a branch, abiding in the Vine.
Clara says
This is an excellent reminder, Amy. Less of us and more of Him! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Gayle says
Isn’t God incredibly sweet to always meet us right where we need to be taught?
I love Erwin Lutzer.. he is one of my favorite teachers on Moody Radio, but I’ve not heard of David Quine; I’ll have to check him out.
Natasha Miller says
I can so relate to this. I want to make my children produce certain fruit in their lives. With more children in the pre-teen and teen stages then in the elementary and toddler, I find myself having a hard time trusting God to work things out in their lives. Great reminder to let God do His work, and to stay on my knees seeking what is best for them through the one who has the power to change them.
yvonne says
Ha thats so me too forcing the fruit lol love your post
corine says
This is fabulous! I love those “ah ha!” moments, when the lord teaches us! 😀 ~ I don’t know if anything I said in my post today would be of interest to you… but this reminds me of it on some levels. It is so good to know that we are not alone… we have a loving Father in Heaven to help us; and we are not responsible for EVERYTHING, nor can we fix everything; but He can. AND SOMETIMES THE BEST WAY TO HELP OUR KIDS TO PRODUCE FRUIT, IS TO LAY THE RESPONSIBILITY IN THEIR LAPS, AND LET THEM KNOW WE HAVE FULL CONFIDENCE THAT WITH THE LORD AS THEIR PARTNER… THEY CAN DO IT!
Take care! 🙂
Corine 😀