Scripture journaling

John 15:1-11

Many people come back to this passage when they feel tired, scattered or cut off. Jesus uses a simple picture: a vine, its branches and a farmer who tends them. The picture is easy to hold in your mind while you write. The heart of it is one plain invitation: "Remain in me, and I in you." Journaling gives you room to ask what that remaining looks like in your own days, at your kitchen table, on your commute, in the hard weeks and the easy ones.

The passage ends with joy. Jesus says he has spoken these things "that your joy may be made full." That is why we link this page to our joy theme. The joy here is not forced cheerfulness. It grows slowly, the way fruit does, out of staying close and being loved. The prompts below move through the passage verse by verse. Take one at a time, and let your writing become a prayer if you want it to.

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.

8 “In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

John 15:1-11, World English Bible, public domain

Reflection prompts

  1. Verse 1 calls the Father "the farmer." Picture someone tending a vine through a whole season: watering, tying up loose stems, checking the leaves. What would it feel like to think of your own life as something tended with that kind of patience?

  2. Verse 2 speaks of pruning "that it may bear more fruit." Think of something that has been cut back in your life lately, such as a plan, a habit or a role. Write honestly about what you miss, and about anything new you have noticed growing in the space it left.

  3. In verse 4 Jesus says, "Remain in me, and I in you." What does remaining look like for you on an ordinary weekday? Name one moment or place where you feel close to Jesus, and one where you tend to drift.

  4. Verse 5 says "apart from me you can do nothing." Where are you trying to carry something all by yourself right now? Write a short prayer offering one piece of it to God.

  5. Verse 7 invites you to "ask whatever you desire." Write a letter to God naming what you truly want, without tidying it up first. Then reread it slowly. How do your desires sit alongside the words of Jesus you are trying to keep close?

  6. Read verse 9 twice, slowly: "Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love." Which word or phrase catches you, and why? Where in your life might you need to rest in being loved instead of working hard to prove yourself?

  7. Verse 11 speaks of a joy that may "remain in you" and be "made full." Think of a moment of quiet joy from the past week, however small. Describe it in detail, then thank God for it in a few sentences of your own.

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