“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15:4 (NIV)
I have been thinking on this verse all day. I don’t think I remain well. In the ESV remain is translated with the word abide. I sense a stillness and a trust in both of those words. Stillness and trust are two practices that have shown themselves to be difficult for me. Not a physical stillness, but a stillness where one chooses not to struggle and fight against – well, everything. A stillness where one trusts the Creator of the process and the journey instead of rebelling against it. A stillness where one does not create their own plan. Yeah, I’m not good at all that.
The good news is that I don’t have to be good at it, I just have to keep trying. I have to keep saying, “Jesus, I am going to try to remain. I am working at remaining in You. Help me.” Then, I have to choose to sit and trust. When my thoughts bombard me with the negative and my instinct is to run from where I am in my journey, I choose to take those thoughts captive to Christ. I choose to remain in Him and let Him focus my thoughts on what is true and right and good. It’s hard. It takes effort and intentionality. Every single time it is worth it. Every single time I feel better and safer and more content. So I will continue to ask Him to help me remain.
Leave a Reply