Aliel Cunningham

“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. 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. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” ~John 15:5-9

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Be more like Jesus”? or asked yourself, “What would Jesus do in this situation”?  Jesus invites us to follow Him and model our lives after His example, but He never asks us to do anything without Him.  He gives us a picture of a vine and its branches to talk about how closely connected He wants us to be to His life and Spirit.  The branch has no separate life of its own. Whatever fruit the branch produces it does so only as an extension of the Vine.    

I help clean the house of this beautiful family whose youngest daughter just turned 4. This little one has smiley eyes and curly blonde hair and she constantly wants to be in the middle of things – even if it is mopping the floor and washing the dishes.  She is always telling me that she wants to be my ‘helper’.  And so I figure out a way for her to “help” me.  I do this because I enjoy her presence and we both are satisfied seeing the fruit of our togetherness – a gradually cleaner house.  Her “help” usually slows down whatever I am doing, but I’m happy to have her beside me because the point of our time together is not clean dishes or laundry put away, it is building a bond of trust and friendship that blesses both of our hearts.

As I clean house with Amelia, I see a picture of my togetherness with Jesus.  He doesn’t need me to accomplish His purpose, but He chose to involve me in His mission because He enjoys my presence. I realize it is the connection and the togetherness that is the point and the fruit that is borne through my life is just a result of me spending time with Him.  This close fellowship with God is one of the primary reasons we were created in the first place.  God did not need Adam and Eve to care for the Garden of Eden, but He wanted to share His domain of authority with us so that we could grow in our love for Him and for one another as we partner with Him hand in hand delighting in His creation and His heart for us.

And it was precisely this abiding union between God and man that the serpent in the Garden of Eden came to disrupt. When Eve is tempted by the serpent, it is not really to eat of the fruit of the tree.  The real temptation is to distrust what God has said and to act on her own understanding apart from God. She could have fled the temptation and sought fellowship with God again, but because she decide to try to figure out things on her own, she was deceived and fell into sin.

“Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

~ John 15:5b

Jesus emphasized how vital our constant connection to Him is when He said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5b).  How often do we try to figure things out on our own and only find ourselves tied up in knots of worry and fear? When we do this, we have stepped away from our connection to the true source of life. When we are abiding in Him and He is abiding in us, we are filled with His Spirit and presence. God’s Spirit is overflowing with love and peace so when we connect to the Vine of His presence then we will find that we filled to overflowing with the fruit His Spirit produces.

We can check our hearts to see what is the overflow we see in our speech, emotions and actions. If we see continual fruits of fear, bitterness, or worry in the overflow of our thoughts, attitudes, and words, we need to ask ourselves, “where we are allowing our attention and the focus of our hearts to abide and connect with?”  Is our heart’s attention focused on Jesus as Lord over our lives no matter what our circumstances?  Or is our heart’s attention focused on trying to understand and control our circumstances by ourselves?  When discussing what brings peace and quiet to our hearts, Elizabeth Elliot once wrote, “The secret is Christ in me, not me in different circumstances.”

One practical way to help keep this truth at the forefront of our minds is to exchange the singular possessive pronoun ‘my’ (as in ‘my time’, ‘my schedule’, ‘my bank account’, etc.) to the plural pronoun ‘our’ which reminds me of the very present reality of God’s covenant relationship with me.  The truth of Emmanuel becomes real to me as I pray about ‘our bills’, ‘our time’, ‘our relationships’ drawing close to God and delighting in our togetherness. 

Song of Songs rings out with this theme of dwelling in union and sharing all things together.  The Shulamite declares, “My beloved is mine and I am his” (Song of Songs 2:16a). May you know the deep and abiding truth of this declaration in your own heart as you invite Jesus into new places in your heart and life.  Jesus calls out to each one of us saying, “I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in…” (Revelation 3:20a).

Are you abiding with Jesus day and night? Are you continually aware of His presence with you as you face the things you fear or contemplate a future that is shrouded in mist?  How can you be more with Jesus in this moment of need? 

Simply open the door and invite Him to come in… “Come, Lord Jesus, into this need, this hurt, this moment.”

He is waiting for you to open the door.