Thursday November 27, 2025 - I AM

 Chapter 26: I AM Day 5

Praying the Name:

John 15:1-16 - I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He [a]takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you[b] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Father, 

    I praise You for sending Your Son to be the true vine whereby we are saved, Thank You that He came down to atone for us and allow us to one day come to heaven as well. 

    Thank You for making us a branch of the true vine, for including us in Your children and giving us the way to become those children. 

    What disobedience is in my life that keeps me from disobeying You? Laziness? No church? Please forgive me and help me want to change so that I have a life that is lived in You in all things. 

    I do not want to be pruned, that hurts, but I do want to be the fruitfully best vine I can be, I pray that You just instill in me the desire to share more with my kids and be the best witness to them that I am allowed. 

    I ask for the Grace from You that will reveal my true purpose in life, that I become a blessing to those around me and for the girls that I write to as well. That I would bear Your sweetness for all those who Hunger and thirst after You. 

    

    William Whatley speaks about the importance of realizing that Jesus is the greatest of all connections, you are connected to someone who is not only the Alpha and Omega but the new as well, alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, New is the middle letter, Thus Jesus is not someone who will be with us in the beginning when we are born, and at the end when death comes, He abides with us in all the between in the middle. In the middle when temptation comes to turn us around, in the middle when the devil attacks and seeks to dismantle and destroy, in the middle when friends become few, in the middle when resources run short, in the middle, when the unexpected shakes the foundation of our lives. in the middle when relationships are severed, Yes, in the middle, therefore we can continue to abide in Jesus. He is sufficient for whatever comes between our beginning and our ending. 

    The kind of abiding that Jesus speaks of in John's Gospel is a lifelong abiding accomplished through faith and obedience furthermore we abide not as a single branch, isolated from others but in a union in Christ, and with other believers, together we are the branches of the true vine. 

    It is no accident that Jesus uses the metaphor of a true vine to describe Himself and His disciples, In Palestine, abundant vineyards were considered a sign of God's favor, Vines are in fact labor intensifying forms of cultivation, that grew best in peace times, producing grapes that could be eaten fresh or made into raisins, juice, wine or even a jelly like substance know of as honey. No wonder the vine was a symbol of peace and prosperity, Numerous times in the Old Testament, God had referred to Israel as a vine, but Israel was a wild vine that failed to produce the rich harvest that God designed for them to produce, 

Isaiah 5:4 - What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?

    By calling Himself the true vine, Jesus was saying that He was the true Israel, Jesus and those who belong to Him will fulfill God's plan for the world. For each of us abiding in the true vine, is a lifelong and sometime painful process, like branches on a vine, we have to be pruned so that we can be more fruitful in the future than we have been in the past. Apart from Christ we shrivel and die, but united with Him, we experience the God blessed life, which as Paul told the Galatians

Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 [a]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

    Indeed, we are called to bear fruit, that will last,