Holy Spirit help me abide in Christ Jesus…

John 15:1-8

Jesus used an illustration of a growing vine to explain our relationship to him and to our Father God. “Abide in me”, he said. We are not to be a cutting from the main vine to grow on our own, in our own way. Rather Jesus tells us to abide, that is to stay connected, and remain part of the true vine.  We are to take our nourishment from the Lord, growing where he positions us, producing leaves and losing them for rest in due season, bearing buds, flowers, and then fruit in abundance, powered by the sun of God’s righteousness and watered by his mercy. Sometime, Jesus tells us, his Father will prune us, taking off limbs of our lives, to encourage more fruitful growth; he likens this to being cleansed by the word he speaks to us. Whatever is the default of my mind and spirit is my ‘abode’, the ‘vine’ from which I am drawing my thoughts, words and actions.  Am I abiding in the fragmented relationships, power struggles and false claims of this world, and bearing bitter or even poisonous fruits? Or am I abiding firmly as a branch of the True Vine, who is Christ Jesus, bearing the life-giving fruits of the Spirit? Holy Spirit, help me abide in Christ Jesus.  
 
Little Children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth…  (1 John 3: 18)
 
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.
An Anonymous paraphrase of Ephesians 1:11
 
                       
Soli ad gloriam
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