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“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit [a]of itself unless it abides in the vine, so
neither can you unless you abide in Me. I
am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears
much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
-John 15:4-5 (NASB)
To
abide in Jesus is to remain integrally connected with him. It is to “permanent”
ourselves in Jesus, making him our home. Abiding in our Lord means drawing our
very life from him all day long, just as the branches of a tree or grapevine
draw their life-giving sap from the trunk of the plant. To be separate from
that trunk is to be severed from life itself.
Unlike
a branch, however, grafting into the truck is not a one-time event to be take
for granted ever after. Rather, Jesus commands us to abide in him and his word.
We have a choice of abiding in him, dwelling in his word, or not. If we remain
connected, the very life of Jesus flows through us as the water from the tree
trunk flows into each branch.
How
often, though, we disconnect ourselves from that integral connection with the
Lord in search of life elsewhere. We choose to abide with friends or
entertainment and neglect time with Jesus when we could have drawn from the sap
of his life-giving word, when our veins and arteries could have been aligned
with this in prayer so that we received his life-giving flow. We try to graft
ourselves to success to give us life and meaning. Else we graft ourselves to
entertainment or food or substances to give us a jot so we feel more alive.
So
Jesus’ words come rolling down to us over the centuries: Abide in me!
©
2016 Glenn E. Myers
