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“Abide with Me”

KJV-

“Abide in me and I will abide in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” John 15:4-5

NIV-

“Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain on the vine. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” John 15:4-5

This conversation takes place in the upper room, shortly after Jesus Christ and His disciples ate their last supper together. Jesus has center stage; all eyes focus on Him. What He tells the disciples seems to confuse them. What does abiding or remaining in Christ mean?

Staying close to Jesus keeps us safe.

How do we abide in Him in our present day?

We learn to pray to God, first. We read His Word.

We learn to rely on God to get us through sticky issues.

We wait for Him to act on our requests or our needs.

How is it beneficial to our souls when we abide in Him?

We find ourselves looking at those issues, whatever they are, through God’s eyes.

We find ourselves close to God.

In the first verses of chapter fifteen, Jesus tells his followers that He is the true vine. He then tells those reading that His Father is the gardener.

Jesus further tells us it is the job of the Father to cut off unproductive branches.

As I sat in our living room and initially wrote this, I saw a bouquet of lifeless roses-flowers past their prime. I hang onto flowers for as long as I can. Why do I keep flowers such a long time? The answer is simple: I like flowers. I know I am to periodically remove the stems that have ceased to look viable but I don’t always do it. God, on the other hand, does prune us as we mature.

God, acting as a gardener, nourishes the vine. The vine gives life to the branches. Sometimes, the vine gets overburdened. Some branches become endangered. Then the gardener has to separate the weak branches from the vine. The gardener must do this in order for the vine to continue to be strong and to produce.

To abide simply means to wait for something. To abide in Christ means that we remain close to Him during times of great stress. Sometimes this is very hard to do. We have something enter our life that causes us to act as though we are on our own. When this happens we have to ask God to forgive us.

As we mature in Christ, we may have to re-learn the basics in order to continue the growth process. Right now, the land, except where winter wheat has been planted, lies fallow, in a state of rest, and awaits regeneration to produce crops in the coming growing season. As children of God, we also go through times where we await for God to show us the next season of our lives. Meanwhile, we wait.

I must tell you that just because we abide in Christ doesn’t mean we always get what we want. I was asked to do something on an ongoing basis at our church. I asked for time to pray about it. I watched how things happened during the time I was praying. I thought I had the answer. But I asked my husband about the opportunity. He said I shouldn’t. He told me why. I wanted to tell this lady yes. But in the long run, he might have been right.

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

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