John 15:4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
There is a war raging inside me.
I aggressively demand my independence, proclaiming my self-sufficiency.
I also secretly feel fearfully vulnerable and powerless, in need of protection.
We are designed in God’s image to be powerful and fruitful, making an eternal impact in the world. But we behave like little kids that have an over-inflated view of our abilities. Think about that little kid that is learning to dress himself. The day finally comes where he demands “I CAN DO IT MYSELF” as he sorts through his dresser, picks out an eclectic assortment that closely resembles an exploded circus clown, and puts on his clothes…backwards. As parents, we would just smile, laugh, and (sometimes) help him correct his mistake.
We treat our fruitfulness in much the same way. I believe (and therefore behave) like I am able to live and love by my own strength. I claim to be dependent on Jesus, but when it comes to street-level behavior I am actually living like “I CAN DO IT MYSELF!”
But Jesus never designed us to “do it ourselves.” Yes, we are given the fruit (Galatians 5) of self-control, but it’s fruit “of the Spirit,” which means that it is only activated when it is connected to the fuel-line of The Spirit. It means that our sufficiency is predicated upon our dependency; our ability is animated by his power.
So in real-life terms, what does that mean? What does it mean to “abide” in Jesus?
The good news is that scripture over and over reveals a two-sided abiding:
we in him; him him in us.
To abide in Him means to find our hope, love, life, power, fulfillment, satisfaction, peace and truth in Him. It means to declare our deep vulnerability and inability, followed by our personal dependency on nothing and no one but Him alone. And the only way we can even get to this place is because His Spirit first abides within us, giving us the heart to simultaneously admit our insufficiency while claiming and resting in his sufficiency. And this is the great irony. When we finally admit our inability, we are organically and powerfully propelled outward in miraculous fruitfulness…his fruitfulness. We become unstoppable agents of change, but begin to realize that it is all from Him, and He gets all the glory.
Today, in what are you abiding?
And what is abiding in you?
Where do you find your strength, your ability, your sufficiency?
What if the absolute vulnerability of God himself in the person of Jesus on the cross, the greatest irony of all time, could be transformed into the greatest strength as the resurrected King sends His Spirit to be inside of us so that, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead could be active and alive IN us and even THROUGH us. What if we are more powerful than we ever imagined, but that this power can only be activated when we admit our self-powerlessness? What would happen if we believed that, by His Abiding Spirit, we are men and women that are being used to bring about His Kingdom through loving him in worship and others in missions?