If you knew you were walking to your death, you would certainly want to share the most important things on your mind with most those you loved most, right? On His way to the garden where He knew He would be betrayed and taken for execution, Jesus passed a vineyard and imparted this insight to His disciples...and to us.
John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
He summed up the gospel in this one section. We don’t have to fight to be holy, muster our gumption not to sin, or become Mother Theresa and care for the unfortunate—all of which is impossible on our own, BTW. We simply need to remain in Him and that will take care of all the rest.
The word remain in the Greek means to continue, tarry, to abide. And the more we abide in His presence, the more He’ll reside in our hearts and our heads to guide us and assure us of His undeniable love.
Continuing in John 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” We can feel that joy as we continue to tarry in his presence even in the midst of a global pandemic. There are some challenging times today but Sunday is a comin’! So let’s rejoice and remain!
If you need tools to develop learn how to idle down and hear God’s gentle whisper, my twin and I shared a life-time of insights in the pages of our book which we are making available as a resource for you to let go of your stress and embrace joy in the Lord’s presence. While we are in quarantine, we have lowered the price to $2.99 E-book and we asked Amazon to lower the price making the hard copy $11.71. My co-author-twin and I wanted to offer you this resource to help you release your anxiety and press into God during these challenging times. https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Pecked-Tuned-Finding-Digital-World/dp/1589303148/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Linda+Newton&qid=1576278488&s=books&sr=1-1