"Abide in Me"

“Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, and 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  “Do nothing.”  How does that look?  Ezekiel 15 paints an excellent picture of how “nothing” looks.  To put it in a nutshell:  burnt on both ends and charred in the middle.

God, in talking to Ezekiel, asks him if the wood from a vine that has been thrown in the fire and “the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything?”  He also tells Ezekiel that really the wood from the vine had not been made into anything while it was intact, how much less when the fire has consumed it and it is charred.  And then He goes on to make declarations that by His grace, I hope we never have to hear but will take warning from this passage: “I have given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem…I set My face against them…I am the LORD…I set My face against them…I will make the land desolate.”  God did indeed fulfill these declarations and Israel suffered much from His absence.  And thankfully, He has also declared that He will bring them back into the fold.  But God tells why He declared His withdrawal from them:  “because they have acted unfaithfully.”

I want to be a faithful follower and I will add “fruitful” to that desire: a faithful fruitful follower.  And Jesus instructs us through His wonderful words to His disciples how to do this.  “Abide in Me.”  The word, abide, means to “accept or act in accordance with; to continue without fading or being lost”.  “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.”   Keep on keeping on; don’t give up.  If you fall, get up.  If you falter, hold on.

Ezekiel 15 gives clear warning of the problem.  John 15:1-11 gives us clear hope of the solution.  And the chief end of man in all this:  “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”  “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”  Man’s chief end is to bring glory to God.  And though our lives all look differently, that should be the number one desire.  May we be resolved to this end.  May our resolve be moment by moment.  And if we fail, then call out to Him who is ready to hear and supply the need of that moment.   Let us be faithful followers.  God will bring forth the fruit!  And He will be glorified!  He is the One that will turn our charred, useless, nothing vine into a flourishing, fruitful, useful vine of beauty.  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Let us spread this word of hope to a desolate, needy, dark world.