REMAIN in Me

John 15:5 ~ "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing."


At The Annex, CU's campus church, we are studying this passage in John throughout the duration of the summer months. Tonight, Whitney, our summer intern, spoke on this specific verse (cf Romans 8:28; John 15:9-11) and it really struck a chord with me, what with all the preparation for our Uganda trip. She really focused on the 2nd sentence in this verse starting with the reminder to


"REMAIN in Me."


This, followed by the difficult truth


"apart from me you can do NOTHING."


Those are hard statements to act upon and to believe: it is a call of surrender, a call of submission. And in today's society, where individuality and independence are highly sought after, surrendering is and extremely hard thing to do. But at the same time, it should be so simple. After all, Jesus is asking so little of us. He's not commanding us to go on missions trips, or to spend every day at the homeless shelter, or even to tell 10 friends about Christ's love everyday... All He's asking is for us to remain in Him.


He states previously that: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful" (John 15:1-2). In this way, we are to be pruned by THE Gardener, our Father in heaven. He's not wanting us to be the crazy vine that's trying to grow to a farther trellis and push as hard as we can to pop out a piece of fruit. Instead, He's asking us to "remain in Him," being pruned as the Father deems fit, so that through Him, we may bear MORE fruit.


In all that we do, we must REMAIN in Him. Remain in Him in the workplace. Remain in Him in school. Remain in Him in the lonely times. Remain in Him in the extremely chaotic and busy times. Remain in Him in the peacefulness. And remain in Him when disaster strikes.


We have been crazy busy trying to get everything worked out and straightened out for our Uganda trip. It has been difficult trying to figure out how all the finances are going to work out, how we are going to get everything ready in time, how all the little details are going to be figured out, etc, etc, etc... In reality, we just need to Remain in Him and trust that He will work everything out. This will definitely help in the spiritual preparation for the trip and will make remaining in Him during the trip possible. For if we do not remain in Him now, how then is it possible to remain in Him during the trip? And if we are not able to remain in Him during the trip, it will not be possible to bear fruit...


Please pray for us during this stressful time of preparation, that we will have peace in remaining in Him so that we may bear much fruit during our trip. We thank you for your continued support and love you all deeply!