I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. – John 15:11 (NIV)

Jesus doesn’t want you to go through life without joy. He feels this way so much that He promises to put his joy in us. As He does that our joy is complete.

So instead of going through life trying to find things that bring us joy, we can look to Jesus, who is the true source of joy. Joy found in Jesus is complete and fulfilling. When we look toward other things instead of Jesus to be our joy, we will always come up short.

So today, spend some time to look toward Jesus. Look to Him to be the source of your joy. Don’t let circumstances, feelings, or worldly success be where your joy comes from. Those things will lose their joy and fade. Instead, let Jesus be the source of your joy today.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. – John 15:9 (NIV)

I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but I have days where I really struggle with my emotions. Sometimes I feel really good about myself. But, most of the time, I see my flaws, the areas where I struggle, and often get down on myself.

That’s where today’s verse comes in. It talks about remaining in Jesus’ love. When I think about remaining, to me it means to stay, don’t move, just be there. Have you ever taken some time to think about just staying in the love of Jesus? Just focusing your attention on His love toward you?

How would our view of our shortcomings change, if we became really focused on His love toward us? If we got serious about remaining in that love? Would we be more aware of Him and less aware of ourselves?

Today, if you’ve struggled in this area, take some time to really think about what it means to remain in His love, and then do it. Every time a thought comes that says you’re a failure, or that you don’t measure up, replace that thought with the truth from God’s word. Realize that what matters is what He says about you, not how you feel.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. – John 15:8 (NIV)

There’s a really pretty garden about 20 minutes from my house. It’s available to tour, and you can walk through it and enjoy all the sculpted plants, flowers, and lots of other beautiful things. When you go to the garden, however, you don’t ever think that those beautiful sculpted plants just grew that way. Rather, you see the sculpted bush that looks like a frog, and you think, what an amazing gardener.

That’s a little like what today’s verse is talking about. When our lives are fruitful, it brings the glory to God. Rather than us getting praise because we made good grades this semester, or because we’re really good at public speaking, if we succeed and are fruitful, it should point back to God.

Everything we do, should be done for the glory of God. Why? Because we were created to bring God glory. When we bring glory to ourselves and don’t give God credit for our success and fruitfulness, it brings a joy to our lives that isn’t lasting.

In everything we do, we should do it for God’s glory. Whether we’re doing a chore we don’t really like, or loving a person that is unlovable, all should be done for the glory of God. And when we do it for Him, it shows our maturity as disciples.

So today, take some time to examine your heart. Are you living your life in such a way that you are conscious of bringing God glory through everything you do? Do you do schoolwork for the glory of God? How about your chores? Are they done for God’s glory? In everything, be aware that you are bringing Him glory. Grow into maturity by giving Him glory in everything you do.

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. – John 15:6 (NIV)

Have you ever noticed that when you cut a flower from it’s stem, in a few days it starts to wilt and die? Why? Because plants when they’re no longer apart of their stem die.

Really the same is true for us too. In John 15:1, Jesus refers to himself as the true vine. As the vine, He is our source of life. So when we try to live our lives without Him, we lose all our power, energy, and we in essence die. No, obviously we don’t curl up and die a few days later. However, without Jesus as the center of our lives, we’re living life in vain.

Now you might put a lot of energy into extracurriculars at your school. You might love band, or sports, or archery, or some other extracurricular activity. But if that activity cuts into your time with Jesus, it’s not good. If that activity becomes more important to you than Jesus, you’ll be losing the power of the Christian life.

You were created to be in communion and daily fellowship with Jesus. Anytime you get away from that, you’ll lose your effectiveness as a Christian. Your power comes from your connection to Jesus. So in this New Year, take some time to begin to think about how much effort you’re placing on knowing Jesus. Make Jesus your priority and you will experience more joy, peace, love patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness and self-control within yourself as it then flows through you into the lives of those around you.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. – John 15:7 (NIV)

As a little kid, I dreamed of the idea of finding a Genie and getting unlimited wishes of the things I wanted. I grew up in a family that money was often tight, so the idea of being able to get the shoes I wanted, the clothes I wanted and the toys I wanted sounded great.

Often, we can feel the same way when we read verses like today’s verse. We can think, oh good, now I can get everything I want. And it’s true God loves you and wants to answer your prayers. However, we often miss the first part of this verse. That is that the key to this is remaining in Jesus.

The more time we spend in God’s Prescence, the more our desires line up with His desires. We begin to want what He wants, We see what He sees and instead of always wanting lots of stuff for ourselves, we often begin to want to see others blessed and finding freedom in Him.

So today, take some time to think whether you’ve spent time in Jesus. Have you spent time reading your Bible? As you do, the more you want to be like Jesus. And you find that when you abide in Him, anything you want or pray for you get answers because you abided in Him.

Take time today to remain in Jesus. He’s the source of life, He’s the reason you’re here, and He wants nothing more than to spend time with you.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing – John 15:5 (NIV)

Today, there was a utility truck in front of my house. The power company had sent a truck over to cut down the branches that were hanging over the power lines to my house. They cut down the branches, loaded them into a truck and took them away. As I watched them, I thought about today’s verse.

We are the branches. Branches are an important part of the tree. But they aren’t the main part. The branches can be cut away and the tree still lives and thrives. The main part is the vine or trunk, in the case of a tree. That trunk or vine is what provides nutrients to the rest of the tree. The vine provides strength to hold that plant steady in a storm.

This is the illustration Jesus used in today’s verse. We are branches, He is the vine. And it’s when we are in the vine that we are bearing fruit. So much of society today has written off God. To many He is not really relevant to day to day life. But today’s verse tells us that nothing could be farther from the truth. If we don’t have Jesus (the vine) we can’t be fruitful in life.

So we have to prioritize our relationship with Jesus. It’s in the connection with Jesus that we have wisdom, strength and everything we need to live life each day.

Today, examine your relationship to the vine. Are you connected with Jesus? Are you letting Him fill you, support you and love you? Or have you connected your life to a false vine?

Only you know the answer, but make any adjustments you need to make to make Jesus the source and vine of your life.