Abiding in Christ

In (John 15:5-8) we read this fascinating portion of Scripture:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so, you will be My disciples.”

We all know that a branch can’t survive if it isn’t connected to the vine, nor can we survive spiritually if we are not connected to Jesus. If we are not connected to Jesus we will shrivel up spiritually. When Christ lives in us, His life flows in and through us. As a result, we are able to bear much good fruit and thus bring glory to God – what a marvelous privilege!

When I read this concept of abiding in the vine it made me think back to a time 30+ years ago when I went to America’s Keswick (a Christian retreat and conference center) in New Jersey. When I was there I remember walking through the forest and seeing all the beautiful plants and trees. I carefully picked about seven or eight pretty leaves and brought them back to my room and neatly placed them on a napkin. I left the room and came back a few hours later and observed that all of them had begun to curl up and shrivel; and their once beauty was gone. My conclusion was when they are no longer attached to the source of their growth (the vine) they die. And when we are no longer connected to the true vine – Christ – we also will die.

But this passage in (John 15) has an even deeper meaning than just this concept; especially when it comes to the subject of prayer. For in (John 15:7) we read: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” In this verse, I believe, Jesus is sharing with us several important principles on prayer.

First, Jesus wants us to ask in prayer. I will admit that it seems odd that Jesus would want us to ask in prayer since He already knows what we want even before we ask, but nevertheless He tells us to ask. Sadly, some think that asking in prayer, or petitionary prayer, should be relegated behind other aspects of prayer such as worship, thanksgiving, and confession as if asking is some sort of lesser form of prayer. But over and over again Jesus throughout the New Testament tells us to ask. It’s almost as if He wants to shower us with His blessings – and one of the great keys to this is that all heaven lies before the grasp of the asking man. (Matthew 7:7-8) is just one of the many examples of the power of asking in prayer given by Jesus: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Second, Jesus tells us to abide in Him and have His words abide in us. Just what does abiding in Christ mean? I think it means having our thoughts always focused on Christ and desiring to live for Him. (John 15:7) doesn’t imply that we live perfectly for Christ but it does mean we strive to be more like Him. And having His words abide in us means to saturate ourselves in the Scriptures. (Psalm 119:11) is a good picture of this: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

Third, our asking and abiding should be focused primarily on kingdom purposes with the desire to bring glory to the Father. A wonderful verse connected with this thought is (Psalm 37:4): “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” When we delight in the Lord His desires become our desires and our desires become His. So, when we read in (John 15:7): “…you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you,” it’s almost as if our desires are really the Lord’s desires and thus we are in alignment with the will of Jesus. This is an exciting concept that we should meditate on. 

And fourth, and lastly, it is implied that we believe that God will answer on our behalf. Jesus stresses this point in multiple places. For example, we read this in (Matthew 21:21-22): “So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Jesus tells us here to have faith, do not doubt, and believe.

While I am not much on prayer formulas, I do believe if we ask for something in prayer, are abiding in Christ, praying to see God’s kingdom advance and the Father glorified, and believe He will accomplish what we ask for, then we should expect to bear much fruit in our prayer life. I leave you with (1 John 5:14-15) to meditate on: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”