God's Way of Making You More Like Jesus

May 16, 2024

John 15:2 says, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^, so that it will be even more fruitful.”

 You have been called to become something significant. Or more precisely, you’ve been called to become like someone significant. We, as believers, are called to become like Christ.

I have said before that God cares more about your character than he does your comfort. During the process of spiritual growth (becoming like Christ),God slowly uncovers parts of your life that need to change in order to be more like Jesus. Sometimes, that is uncomfortable.

Like the verse above says, he cuts off the branches that bear no fruit. That takes some sacrifice on our part.

Here are some questions to ask yourself today: What do you need to cut out of your life? What “branches” of your life is God trying to prune or refine to make you more like Christ? When you invited Jesus into your life, did you give him complete access? Have you resisted his efforts to help you mature because you insist on keeping some things behind closed doors?

Jesus doesn’t want you to limit how or where he works in your life. Otherwise, you’re limiting how much you can mature.

And, don’t hear me wrong, God loves you as you are today. His love for you isn’t based on conditions or you changing. But, he DOES love you so much, that he doesn’t want you to stay the way you are forever. It’s God’s will that you would mature and become more like Jesus.

And, he doesn’t expect you to do the changing on your own. He wants to work with you to help you uncover areas that you still need to surrender to him. He does the changing, you do the cooperating.

God wants you to take on the characteristics of Jesus, who is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, self-controlled, and gentle (you may recognize these as some of the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23).

Will that kind of growth happen overnight? Absolutely not. Will it happen easily? Nope. But you’ll get there.

The Bible promises us this: “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6 NLT).

Next time you think about the fruit of the Spirit and get discouraged at how far you still have to go, remember this: God isn’t finished with you yet!  He loves you, and He is still working to make you more like Jesus.