You Are The Vine

Thinking on Isaiah 5:1-2, Jeremiah 2:21, Psalm 80:8, Hosea 10:1, John 15:1-8.....

The vineyard belongs to God.
Israel is the vine.
They took pride in being God's vine.  In being the chosen of mankind.
But, now things are changing.  God is claiming the vine is really His and not the property of Israel.  And, He will prune (dress) the vine as He desires!
By the first century AD, Israel had become rebellious - the "wild grapes".

Jesus comes on the scene and claims to be the true vine.
The disciples, by extension, you and I, are the branches.
God will prune the vine, aka the branches, a He sees fit.
By doing so He increases the yield of His vine.

God will lift the branches off of the ground, out of the mud, setting rocks under them to keep them dry so that they may bear fruit and not mold.  This is the picture of His lifting us out of the mud of what surrounds us, setting us on rocks, so that we may bear fruit and not rot in the process!

God prunes to increase His yield, not to make the branch happy!  Pruning is not punishment.

Hebrews 12

• we are disciplined for our own good
• we are to slow down and live life in Jesus
• we are to wake up and take the time to correct and recover our walks
• we are to deepen our roots through the increase of faith
• we are to look more like Jesus

Yeah, sometimes life hands us lemon and the point is not to make lemonade but to learn to be grateful for the lemons in our life.....  Because God will use them, to His glory and His purposes.