Welcome To Van Life Devotions. Around the Granite Belt south of Queensland including the hinterland just behind where I live on the Gold Coast there are some beautiful wineries. These areas are rich in soil helping produce healthy crops. In John 15 Jesus talked about vines and its branches. Verse 5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV).
This key word “abide” is used eleven times in verses 1 – 11. “Abide” in this context means to keep in fellowship with Christ so that His life can work in and through us to produce fruit. Jesus and His disciples had just left the Upper Room where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and had the last supper. As they moved toward the Garden of Gethsemane, they would have passed the Temple. Here, one of the chief ornaments was a huge "golden vine”. I wonder if this decoration becomes the basis for this teaching.
Using this illustration, Jesus had been comparing Himself to a vine and His disciples as the branches of the vine. Some branches continued in the vine, that is, remained in living union with the vine, so that the sap or life constantly flowed into these branches. Everything in them was simply the outcome of the life of the vine flowing into them. Their buds, their leaves, their blossoms, their fruit, came through their dependence on remaining on the vine. Other branches were completely severed from the vine and therefore no flow of the sap or life of the vine came to the branches bearing no fruit. As Christians we to need to abide in Christ for our source of hope, life, and direction.
Then in verse 7 Jesus teaches us how to abide in Jesus – by reading the Bible and praying. The more we meditate on the Bible and let His Word sink into our thoughts and hearts, His encouragement, hope, assurance, and direction start to flow into our lives like sap from a vine into its branches bearing fruit.
Many would know the old hymn “Abide in Me”. It is based on this Bible passage. It was composed by the Scottish poet Henry Francis Lite (1793-1847) just before his death in 1847. He emotionally wrote this in the last weeks of his life as he faced death due to tuberculosis. He needed his Lord's presence during this hard time, and so he wrote: "I need thy presence every passing hour". It was in the Lord that he saw the light that "shines through the gloom", as he wrote.
As you remain in Him, His Words and His Presence flows more into your life so that whatever seasons you experience, you know that God is with you, providing you with the sap of life that’s needed to flourish.
Let’s pray: Lord God, may Your presence come near to me as I pray to you and hear from You through reading Your Word. O God, preserve us who travel; surround us with your loving care; protect us from every danger; and bring us in safety to our journey’s end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Press here to watch Audrey Assard sing “Abide In Me”.
David Moyes
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