Cling To The Vine

In John Chapter 15 Jesus talks of Himself as the vine, and us as the branches.  He tells us over and over to abide in Him.  He says if we abide in Him we will bear much fruit, but that we can do nothing without Him. 

I was reading in Anxious For Nothing today and the author, Max Lucado, talked about this.  He talked about how hard we might be trying to create the fruit that will show we are attached to the vine.  But this can become an impossible to do list.  As I think of it now, this can easily become perfectionism.  We are trying so hard to do what someone who loves Christ would do -- because we do love Him.  But I liked this thought:

"You long to be "anxious for nothing."  You long for the fruit of the Spirit.  But how do you bear this fruit?  Try harder?  No, hang tighter.  Our assignment is not fruitfulness but faithfulness.  The secret to fruit bearing and anxiety-free living is less about doing and more about abiding."

What exactly is abiding?  I think this means that we need to feel at home with Christ.  We do this by getting to know Him.  By thinking of Him.  By learning His ways and coming to the point where He is our first thought in times of trouble and times of joy.  He is our peace in every storm.  We trust Him with everything about us and know that He loves us just how we are and at the same time wants to help us be better.  I believe the more we come to know Him, the easier it will be for us to recognize what He would do, so we can do it too.  He does want us to produce good fruit, but He is the one that will give us the ability to not only do good works, but to do them with joy, and with a wisdom greater than ours.