Abide

Something’s wrong…

It’s fairly easy to realize when something’s wrong in a relationship… it’s when someone stops talking to you… someone who previously made an effort to keep in touch and share their excitement with you now rarely even responds when you reach out… I wonder if that is how God thinks of our prayers?

When we need something we are chewing His ear off; when we are afraid, when we are in trouble, we are at his door demanding He do something! But, any other time we act as if He doesn’t get any input… like we can live life separate from His perfect ways…

The context of ‘asking the Father anything in My Name and He will give it to you’ (John 15:7, 16) is that ‘you abide in Jesus and His Word abides in you.’

To abide means, ‘to rest in by acceptance or acting in accordance with a rule, decision, requirements.’ In the case of receiving God’s ‘blessing’ or like the servants receiving the ‘talent’, it is to abide in His Word. Jesus clarifies this for us by using the grapevine, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit (like the first two servants). For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned (like the third servant). But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted (just like the first two servants received more)”(John 15:5-7). He goes on to define that ‘remaining’ or being attached to the vine requires obedience to His Word (v.10).

So all the time we cut off communication with Jesus and live by our own rules, expectations, and standards; it is by our own choice we have positioned ourselves to be removed from the vine and cast into the fire for all eternity.

But those who choose Christ over ‘all’ else are pruned by the nurturing Hand of God (v.2) to live Christ-centered lives, that are scripturally anchored, and driven by unceasing prayer.

God is ready and desires to fill your life with His goodness to overflowing. Because He is absolute perfection and what He is giving you is Himself, then you must prepare to receive it in its designed way of transmission; that is through faith in Jesus Christ and clothed in His righteousness. These are the elements of abiding.

Cling to Him as the branch to the vine that produces much fruit and you will know the joy of an abundant life with God.

Choose wisely…

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Praying 4 U

Written by David Brown: David Brown is a husband, father, grandfather, Pastor with a Masters of Religious Studies and a Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Religions. Dave is the Associate Pastor of Pemberton’s First Baptist Church. He is the author of two devotional books, “From a Chair by the Window.” And “#PrayerWinsThe Day”.