"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:5-8)
There are times
when I am feeling negative emotions to the point of despondency, but suddenly I
look around and realize where I am: in the Beatitudinal Valley! That always
reminds me that it is a blessing when we find ourselves feeling poor in spirit
about what we are reading in God’s word.
As I considered
this in relation to a dubious track record in the “bearing much fruit”
category, God again blessed me with another Beatitudinal Journey that reminded
me who I am, and for whose glory I am alive.
If "bearing
much fruit" requires saving lots of souls, or building up lots of
disciples into living for Christ, or helping people spend a lifetime seeking
God in his word and prayer, I am obviously a failure.
If "bearing
much fruit" means looking to others like we are filled with "love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and
self-control" (the fruit of the Spirit) then this would be strike two.
However, if letting
myself meet God in the Beatitudinal Valley so he can bless me with a genuine
journey into real fruit bearing is how I will "bear much fruit", then
recognizing where I am on the downside of the valley gives me hope that the upside
is ahead.
The Beatitudes are
the way Jesus began his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). They are eight
statements that begin, “blessed are…”, and then describe the qualities people
will find in themselves when God is blessing them. Yes, this is the focus, that
Jesus is describing what it looks like to be blessed by God, NOT what we must
do to earn God’s blessing.
So, if any of us
feel “poor in spirit” in relation to bearing much fruit, that willingness to
admit how poorly we are doing is a blessing from God.
And if any of us go
deeper into “those who mourn” what is wrong with us, it is further evidence that
the Father is at work to bless us by grace through faith.
When we find ourselves
going even further into meekly acknowledging that we cannot fix our problem of
bearing so little fruit and so we must submit to Jesus Christ who can “transform”
us into his image, that meekness is a blessing of God to break our attachment
to self-effort and lead us to fully rely on his Son.
When we submit to Jesus
Christ and find ourselves hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of
bearing much fruit to the Father’s glory, we are being blessed. This downside
of the Beatitudinal Valley brings us to valley bottom where God satisfies our
longings by grace through faith in ways no amount of doing good works or trying
harder could ever accomplish.
This results in God
blessing us to become his “merciful” children with “pure hearts” in our single-hearted
devotion to him. We become the “peacemakers” whose pure hearts want nothing
more than to see everyone we meet come to experience peace with God through the
good news of Jesus’ kingdom. And we become such an annoyance to the world, the
flesh, and the devil who do not want people glorifying God by bearing much
fruit, hence their incessant efforts to “persecute” Jesus’ church into
oblivion.
Since I am sharing
this on the morning of Easter Sunday (Resurrection Sunday), it is fitting that
we would celebrate the new covenant in Jesus’ blood by seeking with all our
hearts to bear much fruit in this world to the glory of God the Father, and the
glory of Jesus Christ our Lord who has provided so great a salvation.
And then we go from
here to abide in Jesus Christ as branches abide in the vine, and to praise the
Father for any ways he deems fit to prune us (knowing that much more is
required than pride would ever admit). If we truly hunger and thirst to bear
much fruit to the glory of the Triune God, we welcome every pinch of Father’s
pruning shears as a gracious and necessary good to make us like his Son.
© 2026
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
