Our Purpose

"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you." John 15:16 (The Message)
 
       Here Jesus makes it implicitly clear to His chosen ones (us), why He chose us. You see many people scour the earth to find purpose and meaning behind their lives. Jesus is well aware of this and in no uncertain terms breaks it down to its lowest common denominator. Our purpose: Be effective in producing fruit. Our provision: Asking God for anything to help us be effective fruits. You see, God will grant us whatever we ask for if our motives are to produce more effective fruit. 
 
       Conversely, those who do not produce fruit, "He [God] cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes (fruit)." (v.1) Again Jesus pulls no punches. He establishes Himself as the true vine and apart from Him we cannot be effective in any endeavor in life. The curious thing is that if we are in Him and don't produce fruit then we are manually removed. On the flip side, if we are bearing fruit we are being made better to produce more fruit by being pruned (v.2). You see, our maturation occurs through adversity so as James 1:4 states, "Let it (adversity) do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." 
 
        How do we start bearing effective fruit? Jesus makes a rather simple request, "But remember the root command: Love one another." (v.17) As we learn to love one another as He loved us then it becomes easy to see the needs of someone else and do our best to support that person the best we can. This is producing fruit. We are allowing a branch to get healthy so that they in turn could begin to produce fruit as we are intended to produce. It's a cycle that starts with the vine. We're either in the vine or separated from it (Him). With Him we can do anything, apart from Him we are severely limited. The choice is ours!