My apologies for missing yesterday's daily ... I was unexpectedly away all day! 

7. My Father is the Vine-grower—

John 15:1 (NRSV) — 1b … My Father is the vine-grower.

Christ is about to teach His disciples about their being branches but before He ever uses the word, or speaks at all of abiding in Him or bearing fruit, He turns their eyes heavenward to the Father Who watches over them, and works ALL in them.

At the very root of all Christian life lies the thought that God is to do ALL—that our work is to give and leave ourselves in His Hands, in the confession of utter helplessness and dependence, in the assured confidence that He gives all we need. How we balk at the words ‘utter helplessness and dependence’ being applied to us. Most of us have struggled to make it through the school of hard knocks and have developed a strong streak of self-help and independence … the exact antithesis of in Him I live and move and have my being!

AM comments that:

The great lack of the Christian life is that, even where we trust Christ, we leave God out of the count.

Christ came to bring us to God. Christ lived the life of a man exactly as we have to live it. Christ the Vine points to God the Vine-grower. As He trusted God, we are to trust God. Everything we ought to be and have, as those who belong to the Vine, will be given us from above.

James 1:17 (NRSV) — 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Before we begin to think of fruit or branches, may our hearts be filled with the faith that as glorious as is the Vine so is the Vine-grower. As high and holy as is our calling, so mighty and loving is the God Who works it ALL. As surely as the Vine-grower made the Vine what it was to be and do, He will make each branch what it is to be and do. Our Father is our Wine-grower. He is the Surety for our growth and fruit.

Our work is to give and leave ourselves in His Hands, in the confession of utter helplessness and dependence, in the assured confidence that He gives all we need.