Girls Ministry

Helping you point girls to Christ

  • Home
  • About
  • Downloads
  • Shop
  • Girls Wknd
Remain in Me by Jennifer Mills - Lifeway Girls
Identity, Uncategorized
September 29, 2015

“Remain in Me”

By Lifeway Girls

Jennifer MillsIn our ‘self-sufficient society’ it’s so easy for us to get caught up in all of our “doing” & our “to-do lists” especially in ministry, and so often we forget to stop & examine our own spiritual lives. Stopping to take inventory of the “fruit” that we’re producing or to notice if we’re even producing fruit at all. I’m not talking about evaluating the events we’re planning or the bible studies we’re facilitating but what is Jesus doing IN us that is budding forth from our personal spiritual growth and producing ‘spiritual fruit’ in our lives.

There are times in our spiritual life when the Holy Spirit shows up to give us a reminder of a lesson that He desires that we go back to “revisit”.  For me, the Lord often guides me back to the most common story or passage of scripture in order to refresh my memory about how He desires for me to live my life and ministry. Over the last few weeks it has been one of those “revisit the lesson” moments for me from John 15 about “The Vine and the Branches” allegory that Jesus gave to His disciples.

I think there are three reminders as leaders and as disciples of Jesus that we can glean from this passage.

1. Pruning can be painful, but is necessary.

In John 15:1, Jesus make it clear to us that HE is the true Vine, and His Father is the Vineyard Keeper. Every branch that does not produce fruit, the Father takes notice of, and verse 2 tells us, “He removes, and He prunes it”.

I’m not much of a gardener myself, in fact I can barely keep a house plant alive! But I do know this, that pruning is tedious & is never fun!

But as I studied the word “pruning” my eyes were opened. To prune means “to cut off, cut away, undesired twigs, branches or roots; to trim; to rid or clear of; to remove anything considered superfluous or undesirable”. This pruning process can sometimes be painful for us as Christ followers, but it’s necessary to keep us healthy and growing. This is necessary verse 2 says “so that the branch (us) will produce MORE fruit.”

Sometimes the difficult seasons or lessons we walk through in this life are exactly this… “pruning seasons” with the Lord and we don’t even recognize it! He is busy cutting away and trimming off the undesirable things from our hearts.

2. Remaining in Him is CRUCIAL for our life & ministry.

Jesus reminds us in verses 4 & 5, “Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do NOTHING without Me.”

Apart from Jesus we can do nothing! Can I get an AMEN?!

We can organize, meet and plan until we’re blue in the face but without Him it’s all for not!

3. Remaining in Him is our choice.

He concludes in verses 7-8, “IF you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ASK whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is GLORIFIED by this: that you produce MUCH fruit & prove to be My disciples.”

IF…”If we remain”… It’s our choice.

We can live our lives and run our ministries on our own initiatives or we wake up each day, remain on the Vine, open to be pruned by the Vine Keeper if necessary, and bearing much fruit for the Kingdom as we minister out of the overflow of what Christ is doing IN us.

_________________________________

Jennifer is wife to Brian Mills, mom to McKenna & Parker, and co-author of “Salvaging My Identity” and “Even More,” both 40 day journey’s for girls and young women. After 12 years of serving alongside her husband Brian in full time student ministry, Brian now serves as the Ministries & Teaching Pastor at Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, TN where Jennifer is actively involved with both girls & women’s ministry. Jennifer has a passion for studying and teaching God’s Word and seeing girls & women discover a passion for the Lord and His Word for themselves! 

You may also like -

  • Why Relativism Isn’t OkayWhy Relativism Isn’t Okay
  • My Teen Girl Is Called to Ministry, Now What?My Teen Girl Is Called to Ministry, Now What?
  • I Think My Teen is Depressed.  What Do I Do?I Think My Teen is Depressed. What Do I Do?

Filed Under: Identity, Uncategorized Tagged With: allowing God to prune, girls ministry, ministry leader advice, remain in Christ

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We’re so glad you’re here! If you’re leading teenage girls, you’re in good company. You’ll find articles, online Bible studies, and lots of fun stuff. More importantly, you’ll connect with other women who love God and love ministering to girls.

Categories

Lifeway Girls Newsletter

Sign up to get a monthly newsletter from us including information about the latest resources and events!
Follow on Instagram
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
Error: No posts found.

Subscribe to the Blog

If you’d like to receive a notification every time we post something new on this blog, enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

All Ministry Sites

Leadership
Kids Ministry
Student Ministry
Groups Ministry
Women’s Ministry
Worship Ministry

Digital Resources

Ministry Grid
Lifeway Worship
Digital Church
KidEvent Pro
MyCurriculum Manager
Simulcast Manager
Lifeway Reader eBooks
twenty:28
WORDsearch

Lifeway Network

Lifeway Research
B&H

Copyright © 2023 · Lifeway Christian Resources · All Rights Reserved

Cleantalk Pixel