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Godly ambition will never outpace our willingness to abide.

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There’s an Order to Fruitfulness

There’s a kind of ambition that feels right . . . even godly. A desire to grow, to build, to make an impact, to bear fruit with your life.

But if we’re honest, ambition has a way of going sideways.

Jesus says in John 15, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit . . . by this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:5, 8). Fruitfulness is the goal. It matters. It honors God. But notice the order.

Fruit doesn’t come from striving—it comes from abiding. That’s because godly ambition will never outpace your willingness to abide. The danger, my friend, isn’t desire; it’s disconnection. It’s wanting the fruit of a life with God without living with God.

Abiding Comes Before Fruitfulness

Jesus gives us another image in this same passage: pruning. And pruning can be confusing. From a distance, a pruned vine can look like loss. Like less. Like life’s being cut back too far. Meanwhile, an unpruned vine can look full, active, even impressive—branches everywhere, leaves in every direction. But when we look closer, we see one has substance (it has fruit). The other just has stuff going on.

Pruning isn’t God taking from you; it’s God making room for what matters, creating the conditions for fruit that lasts. He cuts back what’s excessive so what’s essential can thrive. More fruit, not more stuff for the sake of more.

The Quiet Danger of Disconnection

Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus shifts the angle, if you will, telling us that we cannot hear the words of life if we don’t first let the Word abide in us. According to Jesus, abiding isn’t abstract—it’s deeply connected to whether we’re letting God’s Word remain in us. Whether we’re living with a listening posture. Whether we’re making space to hear in a world that’s full of words.

Because the truth is, we live in a time of constant noise and what I like to call frantic inaction. Always moving, always consuming, always doing . . . but rarely abiding.

Respond

This week, open the Scriptures not just to read, but to remain. Instead of reaching for your phone and choosing activity over connection, linger in the betweenness, especially as you go in and out of sleep. Be sensitive to what the Spirit shows you about yourself or someone else.

We abide with God when we let His presence interrupt our pace, and the Spirit shape our walk.

Closing Prayer

Father,
You are the source of all life and fruitfulness.
Forgive me for the times I’ve chased growth
without staying connected to You.
Quiet the noise around me
and awaken a deeper hunger to hear Your voice.
Let Your Word abide in me,
shaping my thoughts, my desires, my direction.
Give me grace to receive Your pruning,
even when it feels like loss.
Teach me to remain in You,
to trust that fruit will come in its time.
I choose to abide today.
Amen.

Praying with you,

Addison Bevere

P.S.  If you’re new to these prayer guides, welcome! And if you’d like something you can hold, I crafted a 40-day prayer journal that provides a framework for living prayer. You can grab a copy from the Messenger store or wherever you get your books.