I sit in my prayer chair each morning, conversing with my God.

Abba Father God,

I hold onto You today as I do everyday.
I am secure because You are holding onto me.
Thank you.

I like just sitting here with You.
I don’t have to know all the “stuff,” do I?
I don’t have to get it all straight so I fit into “the camp,” whatever that may be, right?
I’m not sure I even belong to one. Not sure I even want to fit…

My Abba responds,

You belong to Me… My family, My people.
You don’t have to know all the stuff and get it straight.
I know it all, and you know Me, and that’s what counts.

As for “camps” — religious, political, denominational, familial…
They are all man-made.

You belong to ME. You are Mine. That’s all the “camp” you need.

So let us go out to him, outside the camp,
and bear the disgrace he bore.
For this world is not our permanent home;
we are looking forward to a home yet to come.
Hebrews 13:13-14 NLT

Dear READERS,
Do you feel like you don’t belong anywhere? No one gets you…

Dear friend, God gets you. He sees you and knows you.
We belong to each other in the family of God.
Let’s pray for each other.
Tell us about yourself and how we can pray for you. (comments below)

And be sure to come back here next time…for the further answer God gave me when I was in the depths of loneliness and feeling like I don’t fit.

But first this heart-grabbing meditation in song:

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Welcome to the Father’s Vineyard.

Hi friends, I’m Jan, a branch in the True Vine…just a branch…but a beloved one. I’m not THE branch, for there are many…multitudes, in fact, from every tongue and family and tribe and nation.

But I am a branch in THE Vine. There is only One, you know, in the Father’s Vineyard. The True Vine is more than enough to supply life to all of us beloved branches.

And fruit? You should see the baskets full that come forth as we live each day dependently abiding in Christ, the Father’s glorious Vine! (John 15:1-5)

I didn’t always know and experience the life of beloved-ness, rest, fruitfulness, and joy that are mine as a branch in the Vine. For many years as a branch, I grunted and groaned trying to produce fruit of many kinds—developing Christian character, loving people, teaching the Bible, trying to “win the lost,” encouraging other branches, etc.

Oh, I drew upon the life of the Vine…at least I thought I did. But really it was more my fleshly self-effort than His fruit-producing Life. Then at the end of my desperation, I heard my Father say to my heart,

“I love you even if you never do another thing right again!”

It took two years to believe what God had really said to me. Every time I would start to trust in the Father’s love, the enemy would come in and whisper,

“God didn’t say that. That’s too good to be true!”

Finally, one day I chose to believe that God truly loved me, His branch, despite my performance, even my religious good works.

Nothing has been the same since. And you know what? I started seeing this very His Love all over the Scriptures:

See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God….and such we are! 1 John 3:1

The Father Himself loves you… John 16:27

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

So I say again, “Welcome to the Father’s Vineyard.”

Here you will encounter many & various Scriptures, metaphors, “pictures,” stories, and lessons. But there will always be the same truth at the bottom of them all:

The Vine, our Lord Christ, is the All-Important One! We the branches are the beloved, cared for, dependent, and fruitful ones because of being connected to the Glorious Vine!

May our Father, the Divine Husbandman (Owner-Gardener), use these entries to encourage your life in the Vine. May you sink down deep into His Life and live from your union with Him day by day. Then His life in & through you will produce much fruit as He promised.

I am the Vine, you are the branches; He who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5

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