UNLESS YOU ABIDE

In the wonderful parable of the Vine and the branches in John’s gospel, we see the perfect union for our success and fruitfulness. We also see the very secret of belonging and having the security of the Lord as our source and comfort.

Andrew Murray (1828-1917) comments on this parable, “There is unspeakable danger of our not giving ourselves with our whole heart to abide. There is unspeakable danger of our giving ourselves to work for God and to bear fruit, with but little of the true abiding, and the wholehearted losing of ourselves in Christ and his life. There is unspeakable danger of much work with but little fruit, for lack of vital relationship. We must allow the words, “not of itself” and “except it abide” to do their work of searching and exposing and pruning and cleaning, all that there is of self-will and self-confidence in our life; this will deliver us from this great evil, and so prepare us for his teaching, giving the full meaning of the word in… in us: “Abide in me, and I in you.”

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. Jesus