Gospel Reflections #559: God grows us wherever we are

John 15:5 “I am the vine, and you are the branches. If a man is connected to Me, and I to him, he bears fruit in abundance. For apart from Me you can do nothing."

To be "connected" is to exercise the faith God has given us.

Faith does not just grow by itself.

Sometimes we do not exercise faith and just wait for the "feelings that only faith can bring.

Feelings are not faith.

Faith can only be joyful and blessed by God when we exercise it.

We sometimes confuse "faith" with "the blessings that come with faith.

To "exercise faith" is to believe God's promises and to obey them, believing that we will receive blessings even before we realize them.

It is not dependent on our feelings, but on God's promises and on His Word.

Even when our emotions prevent us from seeking God, we can turn to Him by praying, "Let God enable us to hang on to His promises in His power.

Being "connected to God" means that we accept and receive the "environment and circumstances" that we are in, and we ask for God's guidance to help us live with it.

It is "secret prayer" and "trusting relationship with God.

There are many things that God does that we do not understand, but the more we know "who God is," the more we are convinced that we can trust Him and leave everything to Him.

And God is waiting for us to do so.

Connection is not about how well we keep God's law, but about whether or not we are trusting God enough to expose and surrender our failures to Him.

We can be who we are, and then we can ask God to help us exercise faith in our circumstances. By doing so, we can be transformed by God.

AUTHOR'S BIO: This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, who resides in Hiroshima, Japan. Masae is a dedicated student of the Bible with a deep passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on Gospel perspectives to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through a Christ-centered approach. We are sharing her insights here so that you, too, can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel and the love of God through Jesus Christ.