The Result of Staying Connected

 In 2024 I wanted to work on staying connected in three areas of my life - to the Lord, to others and to the purpose He has given to me. In John 15, Jesus uses an analogy that his disciples would have understood very clearly - that of a grape vine. Throughout this passage he uses the word, "remain." 

He tells his disciples the following 5 things:

Branches that don't remain connected to the vine do not bear fruit and are thrown away. 

Those branches that do bear fruit will be pruned to make them even more fruitful. 

Jesus reminds them that His word must remain in them in order to be fruitful.

He lets them know that they must remain in God's love as they go out and love others. They can't love in their own strength.

If they remained connected to the vine then they would produce a lasting fruit that would stand the test of time. 

My goals and activities all centered around the idea of staying connected and while I did have some distractions, I did a fairly good job of sticking with my goals and accomplishing what I set out to do and going in the direction I felt the Lord leading me.

As I've been thinking and praying about the direction for 2025, I landed on the word, thrive, found in Psalm 92. As we stay connected to the vine and have our roots going deep down into the soil of His word, we will not just hang on, but actually thrive.

The words found in Psalm 92:12-15 say thrive, bear fruit, healthy and green. I looked up the definition of thrive and found the following in the Cambridge English dictionary. Thrive means to grow, develop, and become successful. As Christians sometimes we shy away from the word, successful. But the success we are talking about here is different from the world's ideas of success.

As I think about thriving, growing, developing and becoming successful I view it in terms of walking forward in the path that God has for me and doing it to the best of my ability. In this case, someone who is rooted and connected to the vine, will be thriving.

I want to continue to follow God's leading in the new year and thrive in all I do. There have been days when I feel like I'm hanging on by a thread and I irritate myself when I'm in a whiny state. It seems to me that if I truly trust the Lord that my attitude should reflect that.

I'm not interested in just muddling through life, but want to have a vibrant, growing and healthy relationship with the Lord. I want to walk in the path He has for me and to do that in a way that brings God the glory. And as I go through each day, I want to have a joyful attitude.

When I can do these things I will truly be thriving in my relationship with the Lord, in my relationship with others and in following the direction He has for my life.

Thrive is my word for this coming year and may we all live this out no matter where we are and what is happening around us.