PRAYING

. . . for outer evidence of an inner life!

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit (John 15:5).

Lord, You are the vine Your Father planted in the earth. We are branches, extensions of Your life. In You we have our being. We are to be dependent on You, like a branch out of a vine. Sometimes we are more like artificial Christmas trees. We plug in and out of You, just enough to maintain our color. We bear leaves, but we are fruitless and barren. We are dry. Our growth is dwarfed. We repent. Teach us to live in You, to pray without ceasing, to live with the sap of the Spirit flowing through us constantly. May we never be cut off or disconnected. Do more than green us up to look like Christians. Load our branches down with fruit. May the hungry pull fruit from the branches of our lives – love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. We give You permission to prune us, to trim back the superfluous and temporal that we might give birth to the eternal. May we bring forth fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that remains. May we flourish. Heal our broken branches. Strengthen us if we have been bent by battling wind and storms. Let Your light break in on us. Send winter fleeing. Give us a brilliant spring and a productive summer. When our branches are loaded with fruit prop us up so we can nourish the fruit to maturity. May weary travelers be refreshed by the life-giving fruit that You miraculously produce through us. Through me. Amen.