It is not an easy thing to endure. If you have ever been in this situation, you may know the temptation to become bitter, to feel lonely and hurt and forgotten, to harden yourself against ever giving freely of yourself again. Elisabeth Elliot reminds us in her book, Keep A Quiet Heart , to be joyful when this happens. Almost before the flower fades the fruit begins to grow, but instead of being allowed to grow where it will, it is tied immediately to a stake, forced to draw out of the hard hillside its nourishment. But the vine standeth stripped and desolate, having given all, and now its own dark time is come, and no man payeth back to it the comfort and the glory of its gift.
Winter comes, and the vine is cut back to the very stem.
While the vine undergoes this death, the wine it has produced is gladdening the heart of man. May you be joyfully thankful in all that you do, both during those times when you are appreciated and thanked and during those times when you are not. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.