Proof God Works

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Your Longing for Jesus Is Proof He's Already Working

If you long to be close to Jesus that longing isn't something you built. It’s proof he’s already at work in you. If you're someone who genuinely wants Jesus and still feels like you're losing ground with him, there are 2 things I’d like you to know.

So, let's talk about this by looking at John 15:4–5.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." — John 15:4–5 (ESV)

Jesus is speaking to his closest friends the night before he dies. He tells them to abide in him — and then he explains why that word doesn't rest on their shoulders the way they might think it does. The command is real, but the power to obey that command doesn’t come from their strength; it comes from his. The weight of sustaining that connection doesn’t land on their ability; it rests on his faithful life flowing into them.

If abiding is a job you must keep doing in your own power, then every distracted week or every dry season, feels like one slip from being cut off — and that's a weight that can’t be sustained for long.

Think about what it's like for a branch to stay alive and bear fruit on a grapevine.

In late summer, you walk past a grapevine heavy with clusters. If you stopped and stared at one branch, you’d see real, visible fruit hanging from it. The branch really is “doing” something — holding grapes, bearing weight, participating in the life of the plant. But what you don’t see is the constant, unseen stream of sap flowing from deep inside the vine into that branch. The branch isn’t down there generating its own life. It’s receiving, moment by moment, from the vine it’s attached to. Cut it off, and it withers. Leave it where it is, and the vine keeps feeding it, whether the branch is “aware” of that or not.

There are two things in this passage that are easy to miss if you're only listening for a command — but once you see them together, the whole weight shifts.

First, Jesus doesn't say "try harder to stay connected." He says apart from him you can do nothing — meaning the fruit, the desire, even the will to stay close, was never something you were assigned to generate on your own. The command to abide is real, but the life and power underneath your abiding come from him, the same way that branch’s next grape comes from the vine’s life, not from some hidden engine inside the branch. Abiding is not you powering a relationship; it is you actively living in and receiving from a relationship he keeps alive.

The Puritan pastor John Owen put it plainly:

"The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you." Your ache to be near Jesus isn't proof you're failing him. It's proof his love reached you before you ever tried.

Here's the second thing — and it's what makes the first impossible to miss.

Jesus said something almost identical about his sheep:

"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28).

That's not a promise about your grip on him. It's a promise about his grip on you. The branch doesn’t hold the vine in place. The vine holds the branch and the vinedresser tends it — through every dry season, every distracted week, every night you felt like you were losing ground. When a branch passes through a season with less visible fruit, the vine hasn’t abandoned it; the same life is still flowing, and the vinedresser is still watching and caring.

Put those two truths side by side and they say one thing: the same Jesus sustaining you moment by moment is the same Jesus who will never let you go — and this means the desire you feel to stay close to him isn't proof you're finally disciplined enough or sensitive; it's the fruit of his faithfulness already at work in you. Branches really do bear fruit, but only because the life of the vine is already flowing through them — and your longing for Christ is one of those fruits.

What the text says here is… Jesus tells his disciples that apart from him they can do nothing — not as a discouragement, but as a description of how the connection actually works. He is the source. They are the branches. The life flows one direction. Abiding is not you powering a relationship; it is you actively living in and receiving from a relationship he keeps alive.

And this means… you can rest instead of strain. Your longing to be near Jesus is his gift to you, not your ticket to earn. Instead of measuring your effort this week, you can simply come back to him tonight the same way you came the first time — by hearing his word, turning your attention to him, and entrusting yourself again to the vine who already holds you — because he started this in you, and he's the one who will finish it (Philippians 1:6).

Now let’s pray about this:

Father, you are the vine-keeper who never lets go of what's yours. I confess I've measured my closeness to you by my effort instead of your faithfulness. Thank you for holding me even when I’m weak and failing you. Cause me to see you more clearly. In Jesus’ name we pray.

Remember: your longing is his work — and this means the ache to be near Jesus is proof he's already holding on to you.

Together We Press On