This is not about the branch!

After having a particularly hard couple of weeks...I have been feeling like I don't have anything to offer and then today in prayer, God asked me a question. He said, "When you eat fruit, are you supposed to eat the branch too?" A particularly strange thought but I knew it was God. I started to look at the fruit of the spirit & Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

Did I read that right? Against such, there is no law? If there isn't a law against the fruit of the Spirit, that means it can come only through grace. What rules have I created for myself, thinking that I can only be "fruitful" when perfect circumstances apply. It isn't grace if I ever think I had anything to offer anyone apart from Him. If I ever think the fruit is a direct result of some "good work" I have accomplished or everything being perfect all the time, I am mistaken. Here I've been, separating myself from the vine with thoughts of failure and legalism and not even knowing it. And if I am trying to feed someone my "good works", suffering from the "Look, my life's just fine!" syndrome, then I am just trying to shove the branch down their throat along with the fruit...and who wants that?

But God encouraged me in this because it takes the pressure off me! His word says that if "I abide in Him and He abides in me, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me, you can do nothing." (That's John 15:5) I can just put all my weight on Him, every burden and He'll take care of it and if I cry...a little watering never hurt growing fruit.

Something else...God showed me a picture.

I saw the vine...it was the heavenly realm, the kingdom of God. And then I saw the branches, God's way of reaching into the earth and then I saw the fruit, all of the promises of heaven passing through the yielded branches, being sown into the earth and the vine breaking through the earth and covering it. And just think about what kind of seed is carried in the fruit of the Spirit.

What change can seeds from those fruits bring forth?
*Love sown into someone who thinks they are unlovable by someone who knows Love Himself.
*Long suffering sown into the life of someone who feels like they can't go a step further, through someone who knows the One who took every step to the cross!
*Temperance sown into the life of someone who is so tempted to sin, through someone who knows the One who didn't!

....just to name a few.