Take care to live in me, and let me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me.

Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing.

John 15:4-5 (TLB)

Just as your body needs physical nourishment, your soul needs spiritual nourishment. You start your day with breakfast, because running on empty nutritionally makes you hungry, cranky, and unable to focus. Starting your day with spiritual nourishment is equally important. If your spiritual tank is empty, you will feel more anxious, impatient, sometimes even hopeless. Filling that tank daily is as vital to your overall health as getting enough healthy food and rest. 

Jesus is the vine and the source of all nourishment, all life. We are the branches, where spiritual fruit is produced. It isn’t your work and activity that produces fruit; it is your relationship with Him. Taking care to live in Jesus means to stay close and fill up. Stay close to Him in prayer, and fill up on His Word. It means getting enough of Him in, that your heart and your mind are empowered with His wisdom, His strength. Taking care to live in Jesus means making many decisions every day that honor Him, and letting Him direct your life through His. Apart from Jesus, spiritual nourishment is cut off. And when His “branches” stop receiving what they need, faith withers and dies, producing nothing.  

Your soul craves time with God for refreshment and growth, just as your body craves food for sustenance. So get close to the Vine. Fill up on the Giver of Life, and you will never stop producing fruit. You are loved!