I am chosen to bear good and lasting fruit!

 

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” John‬ ‭15:16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

• I am chosen. For someone who was never picked to be on a team, being chosen feels pretty good 😊, that feeling of being wanted, valued, needed. I’m reminded of Deuteronomy 7:6-8, where Moses is explaining that God chose them, not because they were great in number, but simply because He loved them! His desire was that they would be holy, set apart, His treasured possession. He feels the same about us! We are chosen and dearly loved. (Colossians 3:12; Ephesians 1:4) Not because of anything we’ve done or not done, but simply because He loves us! Isaiah 43:4 says, “Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you”! That is just so amazing to me, that that is how God feels about me, about us! But, what have I or we been chosen for? Jesus answers that  question in this verse, we are chosen to go and bear fruit, not just any fruit, but good fruit. We are to be His image bearers, we are to bring glory to God by the way we live our lives, we are to be the reflection of who God is. So, is there evidence in my life that I am bearing fruit? Am I growing in the “fruit of the Spirit” as listed in Galatians 5:22,  “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self Control”?  Does this fruit “abide”? Abiding is important to Jesus, I counted at least 10 times, in this section of Scripture, where Jesus use’s this word. I like this definition of the word Abide. "To remain stable or fixed; To continue in a place". I also learned something about a vine. The vine is the trunk like portion that comes out of the ground, it's roots in the soil drawing the nutrients to nourish the branches. Jesus IS the vine, nourishing or feeding US the branches. So in order to abide in Him, to be fed by Him,  we need to stay "fixed" to the vine. In order to produce fruit, we need the nourishment His word provides every day. His desire for us is to remain in Him, so that we can continue to live and bear good fruit. How do we do this? By staying grafted to the vine, Jesus, by reading and meditating on His word, learning to apply it to our lives; by spending time with Him in prayer, so we can be nourished by His word daily and receive what we need to live out the goal He has for us! 
• And the promise of abiding in Him? “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”!