Abide

John 15:1-17

¹"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ²Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. ³You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide 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.⁵I 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. ⁶If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. ⁷If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. ⁹Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. ¹¹These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

¹²"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.¹⁷This I command you, that you love one another.

this passage has been in my head for several months now. although i have read and heard it approximately 273,000 times before it wasn't until a couple months ago that i really felt the depth of it. what does it really mean to abide/remain in the Lord? he put it in my face. it is like being a branch on a vine. duh, its right there. but, if you are a branch on a vine you are nothing without being connected to the vine. that is where ALL of your sustenance comes from. you rely on that connection for everything. and in abiding/remaining in that connection there is no disconnecting and re-connecting whenever i feel like it. in my face! i am a terrible branch. so much of the time i try to stay just a little connected and grow and produce fruit. but those things call for a stronger connection to the source of my sustenance. God please remind me everyday that You and You alone are the source of my life.