John 15:4

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

John 15:4

To be “in Christ” is different than to “abide” in Him. The former is taken care of when we are born again. The latter can be interrupted. To “abide” means “to remain, to have continual contact, to have a conscious recognition of His presence.” We do that through prayer, reading His Word, and the fellowship of the saints.

Jesus gives the example that a branch is only the conduit, it doesn’t produce the fruit; the vine does. So our focus is not to bear fruit, but to stay in the vine. The immediate fruit we’ll see in our own lives is a resistance to sin. I recently talked to friend that had gone through a pretty dark patch in his walk with the Lord. I asked him afterward what had tripped him up. He simply said, “I stopped abiding.” Don’t let that happen.

Striving to abide,

Pastor Gerard Deleeuw