We tend to make the question complicated: What does God want from me? If we’ve been around religion long enough, we start mentally rifling through a list. Read the Bible. Pray more. Avoid certain words. Give more money. Volunteer at church. Behave better.
The list may be sincere, but it’s exhausting. Because underneath it all lies a fear: If I don’t do enough, I’m failing Him. I’ll go to hell.
But when we look at Jesus, we find something startling: He doesn’t start with a list. He starts with life.
“Come, follow me.”
“I am the vine; you are the branches.”
“I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Jesus’ call isn’t an order to become an improved version of yourself. It’s an invitation to become alive – to live in such connection with Him that the life of God can flow through you like sap in a branch.
A branch doesn’t produce fruit by gritting its teeth. It produces fruit because it’s alive, drawing life from the vine. The fruit is simply the visible sign of the connection.
What if the “work” God most desires from us is simply to stay connected? To trust the Vine enough to let His life course through us – into our thoughts, our words, our decisions, our small daily acts of love?
This changes everything. We stop seeing God as the taskmaster with the clipboard, and start seeing Him as the life-source calling us to thrive. The checklist fades. The connection grows. And, without even realising it, fruit begins to appear – a love that overflows, a joy that steadies, and a peace that holds us even when life becomes difficult.
We’re not here to prove ourselves to God. We’re here to live from God.
So maybe the question isn’t “What does God want from me?” but “What life is God wanting to give me today?” And how can I stay rooted in that life long enough to let it bear its fruit?
Out in the mud and dust of our real days, this is where the mystical and the ordinary meet. The life of God runs through us while we make the tea, write the email, hold a friend’s hand, or take the dog for a walk. We don’t have to manufacture holiness. We just have to remain connected to the One who is Life.
And from there, the fruit will come, in its own time, and without the endless anxiety of the checklist
Reflection:
What would it look like for you to live today as a branch on the Vine, rather than a worker with a checklist?
Wouldn’t it be nice to feel loved? Not for what you’ve done or haven’t done. Not because you are perfect or imperfect, but simply because you are. To feel safe because the source of love flowing into you is unconditional and cannot stop, does not stop, ever. How much easier it is to love another, even a stranger, if you yourself are loved without condition, just because you exist. This is God’s love. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Feel it, and know it is true.