Soul Vision: Make Your Life CountSample

How can you “make a difference” or “make your life count” for God’s vision? The deeper, biblical counterpart of “making a difference” terminology is “bearing fruit.” As a “results” metaphor, it relates to internal fruit—the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5) and of righteousness. Jesus chose us “to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16). Paul prayed that the Colossians would bear fruit in every good work (Col. 1:10). Internal fruit must precede and exceed the ministry.

I hope we never forget that we can’t make our lives count for God, make a difference, or bear fruit in our own strength. The whole point of Jesus’ metaphor of the vine and branches (John 15) was to insist that we couldn’t make our lives count without an integral, spiritual connection with Him, the one true Vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). It may have been a while since you have focused on that last part—“apart from me you can do NOTHING!”

If you’ve journeyed with me through other of my reading plans, you may have encountered the “What?” “So what?” and “Now what?” sequence of exploration. What does God say? So what does it mean to my life? And now what do I do?

Do this exercise now. What does God say about His vision and your part in it? Now apply the “So what?” and “Now what?” questions to each dimension of your life.