How quickly things change!

Before daylight this morning, I walked out on my front porch with Rosie, my dachshund girl, following close behind.The purpose of going out front was to encourage Rosie to do her business since she refused to go in the back yard.The owls had been out during the night, and she heard them.They scare her.Her instinct knows she could be their prey.

As I was standing there encouraging Rosie, I looked down the front porch and noticed ivy creeping across the porch floor and up the side of the house. I had noticed the ivy a few months earlier, but since I rarely go out the front door, I was surprised at how fast it had grown.

In the dark, with only the front porch light on, I walked down the porch and began pulling ivy off the floor. It was attached as if it was a permanent fixture. As I pulled, I could hear it snap loose with each tug. I yanked it across the floor, under the railing and then down to the ground. The ivy’s roots went farther out into the flower bed a few feet before it snapped off.

I did this with every strand of ivy that had made its way onto the porch. Once I finished, I made my way to the outside of the rail and pulled the ivy that had crawled up the side of the porch. I then pulled the ivy on the side wall of the house that had crawled from the ground directly up the wall. I moved the pile of ivy I had pulled away from the house and noticed other weeds in the flower bed, so I pulled those.

As I stood there, I thought how quickly this happened right outside my front door, on my porch while I lived inside of my house. I come and go through the garage door and rarely open the front door. The only way I would know if it had overtaken my front porch is if I noticed when I drove by my own house. Then God quickened me in my spirit at that very moment.

Just as quickly as these ivy and weeds began to overgrow your porch, that is how quickly they can overgrow your life. You never open the door to look around to see what has crept in. You go about living, looking from side to side, coming in and out through the side door, while ivy and weeds smother the life out of you. Before long, you don’t recognize yourself. You become overwhelmed and you don’t know why. That is when you need to open your heart, check to see what needs pruning, let go of it and clean it out. I did that this morning.

I cannot live apart from my heavenly Father. If I am, I am not living the life He intends for me to live. He says in John 15, I cannot produce fruit apart from Him.

I know we all get overwhelmed with life, especially now. We cannot carry the burden of all that is going on. We have to trust God; He is in control. We cannot worry and be fearful. I believe He is calling all of us to be disciples now more than ever before. That is what brings glory to Him.

“I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. He lops off every branch that doesn’t produce. And he prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops. He has already tended you by pruning you back for greater strength and usefulness by means of the commands I gave you. Take care to live in me and let me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me. “Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing. If anyone separates from me, he is thrown away like a useless branch, withers, and is gathered into a pile with all the others and burned. But if you stay in me and obey my commands, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! My true disciples produce bountiful harvests. This brings great glory to my Father.” John 15:1-8 (TLB)