Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Our Total Dependency on Jesus


Lately different parts of my body have been in pain to the point of me having to stay at home resting. I was feeling kind of down for not being able to serve. Then, I got distracted and my mind started playing tricks on me. I started thinking of myself as  “useless!”  So, I said “Lord I really need You right now.” After praying, this Bible verse came to mind: 


I thought to myself, what does that have to do with the way I am feeling right now? Thank God for His loving and faithful Holy Spirit. He brought to mind that without Him we can do nothing; that includes our thinking. When we are lead by our flesh and not His Spirit, we can easily lean into our own understanding and forget we are children of God created with a divine purpose. Also, it made me think that if we do not remember every detail of our lives is a gift from the Lord, we could easily “separate our secular life from our spiritual life” when in reality we are a whole being who should be one with Christ at all times.

Yes, He is the vine and we are the branches. Like all fruitful plants, the vine has a trunk, branches or shoots, leaves, flowers and/or fruits. One of the most important parts of a plant are the branches. Without them, the plant cannot produce fruit, but let us not forget the branches need the sap (Holy Spirit), the leaves need the Light (Jesus). The source continues to be Him. 

Jesus said “those who remain in me and I in them, will produce much fruit.”
The branches are of the same nature as the plant, and have only one life and one spirit with it. In the same way, we are to be of the same nature of our vine Jesus, like-minded, of one Spirit. This fruit we produce must be a sweet Christ-like aroma, a flavored Christ-like life and testimony. If we abide in (live in union with) Him as our source of life, we can really say we are living branches.

For apart from me you can do nothing. 
What happens to the branches that fall or are cut from the vine? 
This makes me think of death and decay and two of the fruit of the flesh: Impurity and corruption. I looked for synonyms of those two words and words related to them. I cannot help but to see them as reflection of a spiritual dead life apart from Jesus.
Synonyms of impurity: adulterant, contaminant, contamination, defilement, pollutant.
Words Related to impurity: blot, blotch, spot, stain, taint, dirt, filth , grime, muck, scum, sludge, smut, soil, blemish, defect, disfigurement, fault, flaw, imperfection.
Synonyms of corruption: breakdown, decay, decomposition, festering, putrefaction, rot, spoilage
Words Related to corruption: crumbling, disintegration, dissolution, curdling, fermentation, moldering, souring.

The branches cannot choose what vine to “adhere” to in order to exist and produce fruit. Jesus is the one who chooses them to bear fruit.

Jesus' invitation is for total dependence and trust (comparable to our faith). Just as the branches trust and 
depend on the food provided by the vine for their subsistence so, we must trust and depend to receive everything from Christ. He also desires total consecration. Just as the branches live only to produce fruit, so we must live to produce fruits for His glory.

Finally, the Holy Spirit reminded me that while I was not able to serve Him with "giving fruit with my hands," I could abide in Him while serving Him with my heart. He challenged me to concentrate more on the spiritual than on the physical, to spend more time praying for others and on reading and meditating on His Word.

Thank you Jesus for Your unfailing love! 💕 














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