😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you. I thought I would share with you a line from a movie I watched this week, titled “Full Count”. “My life isn’t going to make me happy. My happiness is going to make my life.”
I also want to share with you the scripture I’m focusing on this week, John 15:1-17.
‘“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in Me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples. As the Father loves Me, so I also love you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
“I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose Me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. This I command you: love one another.’
As we live through the prunings in our lives, we can walk away bitter due to loss of what we once had or joyful in the hope of the promise of fruitful growth to come. Growth is not easy. It takes time, energy, and a willingness to allow the growth. Last Saturday, I attended our first Walk to Emmaus team meeting for the Women’s February Walk. It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 5 years since I last served on an Emmaus team. That seems crazy to me, but there has been a lot of pruning and growth in these past 5 years.
Take a 5 year look back at your life. Where have you grown? Where did you miss a growth opportunity? What about now, can you reignite those missed growth opportunities? Will you allow the Father to prune you, so that you grow and flourish in His love. Will you let your life try to dictate your happiness or will you allow your happiness to dictate your life?
Bless others and be blessed.
Shelly :0)
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Third Day Devotions 