Living Connected to the Vine

We began a new topic a couple of weeks ago in our Wednesday night class called "Growing on the Vine". I liked the title but hadn't really pondered the title itself. This Wednesday night, the leader of the class asked each one of us why we had chosen this class. A lot of people said, "they liked the topic".

As I heard people say that, I started reading the topic over and over in my head and I started asking myself "What is growing on the vine?" While I know what it means to grow in Christ, I realized I had never really thought about actually growing on the vine. I have always thought about "clinging" to the vine, but not really about "growing" on the vine. While I do feel like I am always changing and growing in my spiritual walk, I had just not ever thought about "growing on the vine".

I love the word clinging because it gives me the mental picture of clinging onto Christ with everything I have. To me clinging means getting as close to something as you possibly can. I want to cling to Him and be as close to Him as possible. But the word growing has really caused me to constantly think about our topic over the last couple of days. As I began going over our handout from the night, I began to feel like I've been missing out by just "clinging" and possibly not "growing" as much as I can and missing out some of the blessings God has waiting for me.

While I still want to cling to Jesus as tightly as possible, I want to be more active about my growth spiritually in Christ. If all I am doing is clinging, I know I'm missing out on some growing opportunities. To grow means to flourish, to stand stall, to illuminate. I want to open myself up and while still clinging to Christ, I want to give Him the freedom to mold and shape me and to allow Him to "grow" me (pardon the grammar) into what and who He wants me to be. I want to illuminate Christ with everything I have and everything I do.

In order to continue to grow in Christ, to grow more spiritually and more intimately with Him, to look and smell more and more like Him, I need to cling to Him with a grip that allows me to actually grow to be more like Him. So while I still intend to cling, I want to give Christ the freedom to grow me into who He wants me to be. So that I will not only be connected to the vine, I will be growing WITH the vine.

As I was picking up some things in our office this morning, I found a piece a paper that I had written a quote on from someone. I don't remember now who I heard it from. I haven't seen it in years. It must haven fallen out of a book or something that had gotten moved. It fits perfectly with the direction I want my spiritual walk to take. I love it when God does that!! The quote says, "When the pupil is ready, the master will appear". I guess that pretty much sums up everything. I am ready! I can't wait to see what He is ready to show me!