I wrote recently about looking to Jesus and letting Him adjust our perspective on life and its problems. A similar concept is His command that we “abide” in Him. Let’s explore a bit more about that idea.

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, 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 (for full context, see John 15:1-11)

When Jesus said for His followers to “abide” ¹ in Him, He was telling them to live their lives in constant connection with Him. They were not to try to handle the Christian life on their own, in isolation from His power.

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Life Needs Power

We had an amusing incident at home the other day. I have a nice lighted, magnifying makeup mirror mounted on the wall by my bathroom vanity. My husband wanted to use it for something, but the light would not come on. He worked for several minutes taking the cover off so he could change the bulb. I belatedly realized what he was doing, and stopped him just in time to be a bit of a smart aleck: I reached past him and plugged the mirror in! Voila, it worked. 😀 (In his defense, he didn’t know that I have more appliances than outlets, and only plug that mirror in while I’m using it.) We were reminded that we take it for granted that power will be available when needed.

Let’s imagine a nightmare scenario for a moment. A bad thunderstorm has knocked out all the power lines in your area. Not only that, but the batteries on every one of your electronic devices are dead. And, your car has a run-down battery of its own, and is out of gas…plus the electric garage door opener doesn’t work anyway. No computer, no phone, no e-book; no lights (not even a makeup mirror!), no HVAC, no microwave; no TV, no radio, no communication; and no travel to anywhere that does have those things. I don’t know about you, but I would feel pretty helpless! There are books and movies about the chaos that would result in our modern societies if such conditions held true for even 24 hours.

That is the condition of someone trying to live a truly successful Christian life without staying in touch with Christ Himself.

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Growth Needs Nourishment

In the first century, Jesus’ listeners would not have understood my electric-power example. He used a different one, one that they understood well: a grapevine. Vineyards were a common part of agriculture in the area. The Bible regularly uses a vineyard as a metaphor, usually representing God’s people with God as the vineyard owner and caretaker (Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80:8-15).

If you’ll look at the image for this post, the generous clusters of grapes appear to be growing on the rather small shoots of the grapevine. But that is misleading. The shoots, and the grapes they produce, are a result of the strong, tough trunk and branches of the main plant ². When vine-growers prune those little shoots, leaving only the ones they want for the most successful crop, the cut-off shoots don’t produce anything. Instead, they wither away and die.

Jesus warned His followers that we will continually need Him as much as the grape branches need the trunk of their plant. If we try to be “good Christians” on our own, we will fail. No amount of holding our breath, squeezing our eyes shut, and trying really, really hard will produce even a single grape of true “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22).

Rather than being discouraging, though, that fact gives us peace and hope. Our impact for God is not a result of our own great righteousness or effort. It’s all Jesus. Our job is simply to stay close to Him, obey what He tells us to do, and let His power flow through us.

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How to Plug In

For some reason, though, we find it all too easy to cut ourselves off from our roots. While our job is simple, it is not always easy. Here are some suggestions on how to “abide”.

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Stay Close

First point: Read His instruction book. There are many reading plans from which to choose. A few from my favorite Bible app ³ are: Through the entire Bible in a year; life of Jesus in 47 readings; three months for the New Testament plus Psalms and Proverbs; a different genre (law, history, psalms, poetry, prophecy, gospels or epistles) each day; reading chronologically instead of front-to-back; a week or two on a specific topic. These, or any other method that gets me actually paying attention to God’s word for a few minutes each day, will keep God’s communication fresh in my mind.

Note: During the day, look for the relevance of that day’s reading. See if God has communicated something that is immediately meaningful to the day’s events.

Second point: Talk to Him. This can be a consistent, planned prayer time each day; that’s always a good idea. But it can also be ongoing. Talk about the weather: Thank Him for the pretty day; praise Him for the way weather cycles replenish the earth; ask for safety during storms. Each time you hear a siren, ask Him to guide and help the victim and the responders. At meals, thank Him for the food and for the way He provides for our needs. When something is annoying, ask for patience. When stressed, ask for peace. When confused, ask for wisdom. When angry, tell Him so. He doesn’t mind!

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Obey

What would be the point of learning God’s character, reading about His work throughout history, asking Him for answers to the concerns of life…and then ignoring all that and doing my own thing?

There are plenty of general principles given to guide us through our daily lives. The Ten Commandments are there, of course. So are these commands:

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
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Treat people the same way you want them to treat you.
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Love your neighbor as yourself.
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Do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.
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Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
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Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 7:12, Leviticus 19:18, Micah 6:8, Philippians 2:3-4, Philippians 4:8

An advantage that Christians have is the constant presence of the Holy Spirit. He will nudge us toward any specific things that we need to do or say (or refrain from doing or saying!). Then He will give whatever resources we need — courage, wisdom, strength — to enable us to follow that nudge.

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Let Him Work

Our responsibility to obey God does not mean that we have to force any particular outcome. After all, we can’t save someone’s soul. We can’t change anyone’s mind by arguing with them. We can’t heal the sick. We can’t change the course of history. We can’t even change ourselves. We can’t become better people by sheer force of our own will (Romans 7:18-19).

But God can, and He is willing to graciously incorporate our obedience into His work. But in the end, the best thing we can do is to “Cease striving and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10), realizing that “The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent” (Exodus 14:14). He will do the work of changing the world … and of changing me! (Philippians 1:6, 2:13)

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Imagine a Healthy, Powerful Vineyard

Preaching to myself as much as to anyone reading this… Imagine a community full of plugged-in, fruitful Christians abiding in Christ and channeling His power each day. What would change about our world? What would change in my own little corner of it?

Wouldn’t it be great to find out?

Note: A similar article on this site is “In Christ”.

1. Greek “menō“, meaning “To remain, to abide, to stay, to continue, to dwell, to endure”
2. You can see the bigger branches in the picture, but you have to look pretty closely.
3. Olive Tree is my favorite. YouVersion is another. Those two are free, although there are additional resources available for purchase within them. Logos is a paid subscription, but is known as a valuable app.