In John 15, Jesus tells us to stop trying to be vines and learn to be branches. He’s the Vine, and we’re meant to live out of his abundance. It’s as if he says, “Listen, your work is to stick near me, abide in me, pray to me, soak in my words, be with me, and love me. All you need to be is a little, dependent branch; I will make you to bear fruit.” Yes, Jesus has a big mission for us, but he will cause the big part to happen. He says to us, “You’re going to display me and my power, not yours. I’m going to give myself to you in the form of the Holy Spirit, and then you’re going to go out and I will grow fruit through you.”
Are you tired too? Worn out? Are you burned out on trying to measure up, trying to prove yourself? Maybe we’re doing life wrong. Maybe we haven’t grasped the gospel as well as we’d like to think.
What if instead of waking up feeling empty, you were so full of wisdom and joy you were giving it away? What if instead of living in fear of others’ disapproval, you were watching God touch others through you in ways you didn’t think possible? What if instead of feeling intimidated, you were seeing a future bursting with potential? What if instead of craving things that always seem out of reach, you were content and at peace? What if instead of numbing your exhaustion and anxiety with Netflix, you were free to enjoy your life as God intended? Jesus has a remedy for our emptiness, our fatigue, our inadequacies, our sin: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37–38)
Do you hear what Jesus is saying? Keep coming back to me and I will keep satisfying you. And out of that life with me you will overflow and bring life to others. Our chronic feeling of not measuring up comes from trying to drink from the wrong fountain: ourselves. No wonder we keep coming away thirsty. A thirst that keeps leaving us depleted tells us the well’s broken and empty. Let anyone who is thirsty go to Jesus and drink. Things began to change for me when I got into the book of Acts and read what the disciples were like after the Holy Spirit had filled them. I found myself wanting what they had. And then I realized, I have what they had! What I needed to do was drink what Jesus offered me.
How do we do that? We begin by really believing Jesus will satisfy us if we trust him. We go to Jesus thirsty — thirsty for him. We get alone with him. We pour out our heart before him. We get in his word and we soak in it, memorize it and drink from it. We ask, seek, and knock. We also jump fully into our local churches to receive the grace Jesus wants to give us there. We receive biblical teaching and pursue authentic community. We decide to be honest about our struggles, and stop pretending and performing. And we force ourselves out of our own discouraged heads by serving others.
We abide in Jesus. And the more we do, the more his Holy Spirit fullness will overflow out of us to refresh others. That’s what the thirsty world out there needs; not impressive people, but an impressive God. Your neighbors are going through divorces, the death of children, the effects of abuse, and many hope there is a God and long for what only God can do for them. You can take God to them. Do not miss getting to give God away to people. It’s what we were built for; it’s what our gifts are for.
Don’t worry about size or numbers or reach. Think about souls. The biggest things don’t happen on stages or in books or online. They happen face-to-face, around tables, in living rooms, and in neighborhoods. The people who have the biggest impact on our lives are almost always those who personally invest in our lives. The truth is that we aren’t all losing. We just forgot what winning actually is. We need to give up trying to measure up. Because what we really need is to be filled up. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5). But nothing can stand against the force of God moving through a soul completely in love with him.
