passion @ uwa

Since we began the 40 days of love, what struck me time and time again as the days went by was that loving like Jesus loves is HARD. We can't possibly begin to love the way that He does. That is why we need to depend on God and let Him love through us.

In John 15:1-8, Jesus teaches that He is the vine, we are the branches and God is the gardener. Jesus is the vine. Sometimes we try to do things, try to love based on our own strength and abilities and we may be able to succeed... for a while. But as humans, we grow weary, we want a break from having to keep giving and giving. The reason this happens is that we're depending on our own strength to love but instead we should shift our source to Jesus, who demonstrates perfect, unconditional, unlimited love and allow His love to fill us and flow through us to the people around us.

We are the branches and as branches we need the vine to grow and get nutrients. If we are separated from the vine at any time, we will only wither and die away. Again, this is why we need to always depend on Jesus or else we will just get tired as we go along. When a branch draws its nutrients from the vine, it will bear fruit according to the vine which it is attached to. So check your source. Is your source the expectation of being appreciated and recognized? Is your source the desire to please others with acts of love? Or is Jesus your source and you want His will to be done in your life? Your fruits will reflect what type of vine you are attached to so let your source be in Jesus so you are made more and more like Him.

God is our gardener. He is the one who tends to us to ensure that we grow as much as we can. Unfortunately, the time when growth is more effective is the time when we are put under pressure, when the situation forces us to grow. So sometimes, God prunes us in order to encourage us to grow. Pruning will be painful and usually at that time we won't know the reason God decided to chop off this part of our life, or bring in circumstances that are challenging to us. Don't freak out because after that period of pruning and pain, there is growth and the bearing of fruit. Most of the time, we actually need the pain and the extrication out of our comfort zone so that we would be able to grow. So don't look at painful situations negatively but look at it as an opportunity to learn something and to grow.

Let us stop depending on our own strength in loving others but to put Jesus as our source and to let God prune us to be more and more like Him =)