Branches don't produce more fruit by trying harder

John 15:5  " 'I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.' "

Jesus commands us to glorify the Father by bearing much fruit and showing ourselves to be His disciples.  Galatians 5:22-23 provides a list of "fruits":

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

That's quite a long and intimidating to-do list!  I can tell you that I usually miss the mark on at least one of these before I even get out of the house each morning.  It is easy to look at this list of qualities we are to have, reflect on our daily performance, and become discouraged.  Add these items to our earthly to-do list, and the whole exercise is just exhausting.  We are likely to fail much more often than we succeed.

Jesus just shined an enormous light on these feelings of personal failure in the verse above by saying, "Apart from Me you can do nothing."  If we continue to rely on our own willpower and ability to perform, He tells us what will happen- we fail.  So take the weight of guilt off your shoulders- we can't do this.

What we can do is remain in Him.  Commit to the daily disciplines of reading God's Word, praying, asking Him for help, responding to His promptings on your heart, and making choices that you know are in His will.  If we do this, He will produce the fruit through us.  Forcing yourself to be nice to someone who irritates you is an admirable thing.  But don't confuse this with the fruit Jesus speaks of.  Fruit is not behavior modification, but heart transformation.  When that person is no longer irritating because you can now see them as a fellow child of God, who may have different fears and insecurities than you have, or may have a different way of acting to mask their internal pain, then you are on your way to bearing fruit.