My Life Verse
October 11, 2009
This is the story of how God sent someone in my life specifically to give me a Bible verse that would become my life verse; my goal and focus in life. I go back to it now and again and always think about how I am carrying out this verse.
One Sunday morning, I was sitting alone in a classroom, just flipping through my Bible. Suddenly, a woman I’d never seen before saw me and came in and sat next to me. “I want to show you something!” she said excitedly. She opened my Bible and turned to John 15:15-17 and instructed me to read aloud.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s buisness. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask for in My name. This is my command: Love one another.
“isn’t that so cool?!?” she exclaimed, “God, the creator of Heaven and earth, the Author of life and the prefector of our faith, chose ME! He chose me to bear His fruit! I just think that’s so amazing!!”
She then got up and left. I haven’t seen her since.
But what she said has stuck with me, the verses have been on my mind since then. I feel like God sent her to me to answer questions I had, questions about what I’m supposed to do with my life, right now in high school, such an important time. So now I just want to share with you what God has been showing me through this. I want to focus on verse 16 for now, I think it’s important because God gives us a command.
Verse 16 says: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit – fruit that will last…” Like this woman said, isn’t that amazing that God chose us?!? Just think about how big God is. He created the universe. He holds it all in His hands. He knows everything that goes on. From the beginning of time till the end, He is at work everywhere. He is so big, He does not need a single one of us to fullfill His plans. He can do it all on His own. Yet He CHOSE us to bear fruit!! Isn’t that amazing?? To know that He sees us all at our worst times. He knows all our faults, He knows that we deny Him and chase after such stupid worldly things, He knows that we’re going to mess up, yet He still chose us to bear His fruit!!!! PRAISE JESUS! He truly is so incredibly forgiving and merciful, He truly does love us more than we can comprehend!! Prasie God!
So what exactly does He mean by ‘go and bear fruit’? Well the answer is found earlier in that chapter. John 15:1-14. In this passage we see that God is like a Gardener, Jesus is the vine, and we as Christians are branches. Bearing fruit is like living out our faith, and showing the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. Bearing fruit is going through every day, displaying love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. That’s what God has chosen us to do.
So what if we don’t? Well, we see that if anyone does not remain in Him, if anyone doesn’t live out their faith, they are thrown away and into the fire and burned. This puts such a heavy burden on my heart for Christians who don’t live out their faith. We need to realize how BIG of a deal this is! What Jesus did for us is BIG. What people choose to believe in is BIG. Where we will spend eternity is such a big deal!! So why do we live our average lives like we don’t care? Aren’t people so precious, so wonderfully and fearfully created by God, that we could go and share with them the joy and peace we experience through God, and that there is hope for them??
We definitely can’t do this alone.. verse 4: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”
Is it worth it?? You bet it is!! Verse 7 “if you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”
