Getting Something Done in 2015 December 31, 2014
Imagineyou’re an astronaut involved in a mission to repair a critical satellite inspace. During your space walk—the time you’re outside the shuttle andtotally dependent on the lines to the ship—your connection becomes severed. Yetyou continue to apply yourself to the task: after all, this is a very importantsatellite and besides, your partners are counting on you. There’s so much todo, you have no time to worry about the severed line to the shuttle!
That’s notquite the metaphor Jesus uses in John 15, but His point is the same. “I am thevine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is thatbears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (v5). Just like theastronaut floating in space with the broken lifeline, we are absolutelyhelpless without our practical, life-giving connection to Christ. “You can donothing” is how Jesus described it.
If we’regoing to do something, we need an intimate, life-giving connection to Jesus. Heuses an intriguing word to describe that connection: “abide.” He says it acouple different ways: “Abide in me, and I in you” (v4). “If you abide in me,and my words abide in you…” (v7). What Jesus means by “abiding” becomes moreclear when you put these verses together. To have Jesus abiding in us (v4) isparallel to having Jesus’ word abiding (v7). In other words, abiding in Christinvolves getting His word into our soul. In practical terms, abiding in Jesusmeans reading, memorizing, studying, and meditating on the Bible.
How’s your2015 shaping up? Big plans? High hopes? Lots to do? If it’s going to beanything like 2014, this coming year will probably be busy—so busy, in fact,that we’ll probably barely have time to check our lifeline. We’ve got to getthe satellite fixed!
Can Iencourage you to do something this week? Take 20 minutes to examine yourconnection to the Vine. Then make a plan for how you are going to abide inJesus and get His word to abide in you for the coming year. In my own life,I’ve found that I need a set time, a place, and a reading plan if I’m going tobe in the Bible consistently. Otherwise, my lifeline gets cut; and “apart fromJesus, I can do nothing.”
Let’s getin the word so we can do something—not nothing!—in 2015.