I came across these words written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in her work, "How to Live on Christ." I'll just let them stand on their own.
“How does the branch bear fruit? Not by incessant effort for sunshine and air: not by vain struggles for those vivifying influences which give beauty to the blossom, and verdure to the leaf: it simply abides in the vine, in silent and undisturbed union, and blossoms and fruit appear as of spontaneous growth.
“How, then shall a Christian bear fruit? By efforts and struggles to obtain that which is freely given; by meditations on watchfulness, on prayer, on action, on temptation, and on dangers? No: there must be a full concentration of the thoughts and affections on Christ: a complete surrender of the whole being to Him; a constant looking to Him for grace.”
