Abiding in Christ

Part 2- What will 2024 look like for you?

Do you have a new year’s resolution yet? Have you thought about it? I make them every year. I usually start off strong and then I start to fizzle out after a while. It makes me feel bad about myself every year when I don’t keep the promises that I make to myself. What really upsets me even more is that the promises that I make to myself, I make to God first and foremost so … .basically I have broken promises to God every single year. I tell God every year that this year is going to be different!! Here are some of the things that I tell God I am going to do pretty much every year in no particular order of importance. I tell Him that I’m going to take better care of the body that He has blessed me with by changing my eating and exercise habits. I tell Him that I am going to get up earlier to devote a certain amount of time to Him every morning through Bible study and prayer. I tell Him that I am going to stay positive and not get discouraged about things I can’t control. I tell Him that I am not going to worry so much and that I am going to lay everything at His feet. I tell Him that I am going to try harder to find ways to talk to people about Him. And that’s only a few!! It’s overwhelming the pressure that I put on myself, and then when I fail, and I always do, I feel like giving up. That is why I have decided not to call it a new year’s resolution this year. There will be no making a list of things I am going to do differently this year. Because you see…..I can’t do anything on my own. I can’t change anything about myself all by myself. The new year’s resolutions may work for some people, but they don’t work for me personally. I believe that making that list of resolutions, for me anyway, is detrimental to me spiritually. It causes me to take my focus off of my Heavenly Father and put my focus onto myself, and I don’t rely on Him the way that I should. I am simply going to use the title of this post as my intentional phrase for, not only 2024, but for the rest of my life. My intention for the rest of my life is to intentionally abide in Jesus. If I can truly do that, then I might be able to have some success in some areas of my life that need improving. Obviously, I will fall short as we all do, but my focus will be on Jesus and not on a list of expectations I have for myself. I am super hard on myself, and not meeting those expectations that I have of myself, year after year, has taken its toll on me. Just remember this my sisters, nothing in our lives will truly get better, unless we are abiding in Jesus. I have learned the hard way that my physical, mental, and emotional health will not get any better until I get my spiritual life in order. We can be in the best physical shape we could possibly be in, but our spiritual life can be a shambles. So my intention from this point forward is to abide in Jesus. If I do that, then I will be able to improve the areas of my life that need improvement, whether they be spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, or even social areas of my life. I hope you will go on this journey with me and let’s be intentional about abiding in Jesus together. Like Jesus said in John 15:5, “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.” There are many people in this world with many God-given talents who accomplish lots of wonderful things, but they don’t follow Jesus. I myself can do lots of things that won’t really matter when I come to the end of my life. The one thing that Jesus asks all of us to do is to bear fruit for Him. I can’t do that if I am not abiding in Him. In turn, if I want to abide in Him, then I have to bear fruit. Therefore, without Him, I can do nothing. If I leave this earth without bearing fruit, then I have done nothing with my life. 

Why does He use this analogy of a vine and branches to describe Himself and His followers? Why does He call Himself the “true vine”? In the old testament, the symbol of a vine is used to represent God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel. Psalm 80:8 says this, “You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it.” This is referring to when God delivered His people out of slavery in Egypt and then gave them the land of Canaan that He promised them. In Isaiah 5, Israel is referred to as a vineyard in which God is displeased. He says in Isaiah 5:4-5, What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. God is at His wits end with His vineyard, Israel. Israel is a corrupt vine in the above verses. He uses the good grapes versus wild grapes illustration to make a point. Wild grape vines are considered weeds and will overtake the true grape vine or any other type of plant that is around them for that matter. They are very invasive and will destroy the plant if allowed to spread. The wild grape vines represent the idolatry and sin that had overtaken God’s vineyard, Israel. God says He will not protect them anymore from their enemies. This is why they were carried into captivity. Jeremiah 2:21 also speaks of Israel being a vine, “Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?”  Wow. In other words, God said, “I made you my special people, but now you are strangers to me.” Let’s put this into today’s perspective. Can you imagine God saying these things about us today? Imagine our great God saying this on judgment day, “What more could I have done for you? I gave you My Son! I gave you a way to be with me someday for eternity. But you have allowed a wild grape vine (sin) to take over your lives. I don’t know you anymore. So now I have to cut you off for eternity.” Now does the analogy of the vine and the branches make more sense? It does to me. After I went back and read about Israel being referred to as a vine, and how God had to cut them off and allow them to be taken into captivity, the analogy makes perfect sense. God did this so that they would eventually repent and turn back to Him. This is why sin cannot be allowed to remain in the church today unchecked. It can destroy God’s kingdom here on earth if allowed to spread. It also doesn’t help the person who is in sin to allow them to stay in sin, and remain a part of the church. This is why discipline is so important in the church. There are many scriptures on the subject of church discipline, but here are a couple for you to reference if you need them. (Matthew 18:15-20, 2 Thessalonians 3:6) When I started this study, the idea of tying church discipline in with the vine and the branches had not occurred to me. It is amazing how God’s word fits together like a puzzle, the finished product being our victory over sin and death. Here is one more example of church discipline found in 1 Corinthians 5:4-8, “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Do you see the connection between the wild grape vine and the leaven? Both are representing what sin does when it is left unchecked, whether it be in someone’s personal life, in the church, or in an entire nation. We cannot be connected to Jesus and be living in sin. Our church cannot stay connected to Jesus knowing that there is public and willful sin that is not being addressed. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes and sin, but willfully being involved in sin with no effort to get out of it is what Paul is speaking of in these verses. The church at Corinth had a person in willful and public sin in their assemblies taking part in the worship services. Paul said no to this situation as you can see in the above verses. He told them to give that person who is in sin over to Satan, or in other words, cut the branch off! Maybe the person will wake up and see the error of their ways and repent. Abiding in Christ in our personal lives affects the church as a whole. It takes all of us being “all in” to spread God’s word and save souls. The vine in the old testament, which was Israel, was the vine that spread through the course of history to bring forth Jesus, who is the true vine. God, the vinedresser, cultivated the vine of Israel so that we could have the true vine in His Son. He continues to cultivate us as branches on that true vine. We, the branches, are a product of that true vine. The fruit that we bear is a product of our connection with the true vine. In other words, as long as we are truly abiding in the true vine, which is Jesus, we will bear fruit. What conversations led up to this analogy of the vine and the branches? Let’s make some more connections. 

Let’s go back to John 14 for a moment to see what led up to Jesus using this analogy. In John 14:15-18, Jesus says,  “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Jesus is telling His disciples, as well us today, that He will not leave us alone. He may not be physically present with us, but He will send a “Helper, the Spirit of truth.” This “Helper” is the Holy Spirit. The verses say that the “Helper” will “abide” with us forever. This Helper or Spirit of truth is God’s Word, the Bible. God’s word is truth. Psalm 119:160 assures us of this fact, “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.” And God’s Word is God according to John 1:1. It reads, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word of God and God are one and the same. I’ve heard of some who say they believe in a god, or, as some call it, a higher power, but they don’t believe the Bible to be the absolute truth. They don’t believe in the only true and living God of the Bible. But … .I have to ask those people this question … .how do we even know about God … .who, by the way, is the ONLY higher power that exists or has ever existed, other than through the inspired Word of God, the Bible. In John 14:15-18, Jesus is setting up His presentation of the vine and the branches analogy by assuring us that even though He may not be with us in the flesh, He will be with us through the Holy Spirit which is God’s Word. Jesus wants us to know that through God’s Word, we should always stay connected to Him. We can continue to be a branch connected to the “true vine”, Jesus Christ. Does this mean that we will always automatically be connected to Jesus no matter what we do? No. The Bible says that as long as we abide in Him, He will abide in us. Jesus is not going anywhere. He will never leave us. Sadly, it is us who leave Him sometimes. It is us who neglect Him. Can we stay connected if we don’t study His word, if we don’t pray to Him, or if we don’t assemble to worship Him? The answer to that question logically is “no, we can’t”. The Bible tells us that we must abide in His Word if we want to remain attached to the true vine, Jesus Christ. To put this into an everyday perspective, can we stay connected to anyone or anything if we don’t put forth some effort ourselves? If we don’t stay connected with friends and family, then we will lose our connection with them. If one of our friends makes an effort to have a relationship with us and we just keep blowing them off, what is eventually going to happen? They will eventually stop making the effort. We may come to realize our mistakes and try to apologize for our neglect of the friendship, but who knows if the relationship will ever be the same as before. However, with Jesus, all we have to do is reach out to Him and He will pull us right back to Him just the same as we were before. We may blow Jesus off over and over but guess what?  He will forgive us over and over again as long as our hearts are sincere. That is the beauty of being in Christ. 

To sum all of this up, Christ has to be number one in our lives if we are truly abiding in Him properly. Abiding in anything requires faith in what you are abiding in. We have to have true faith in Christ or we won’t be able to abide in Him. Another word for abide is to remain. It is not a jump in and jump out type of situation. We can’t just abide in Christ when it is convenient for us, because it won’t always be convenient. Abiding has to be constant. It is not just showing up for church on Sundays and Wednesdays. That is only a part of it. Being at every service is the very least we can do. Abiding is a twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week responsibility. It is sort of like being a parent to a newborn baby or any age child for that matter. I just use a newborn because he/she is totally dependent on you every second of every day. You abide in that role as a parent every second of every day. We abide in Christ in much the same way. It is not easy and it won’t come naturally without effort. Jesus depends on us to be His branches that bear fruit through the spreading of His Word and Jesus is the Word. John 1:14 says this, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is the word that became flesh for us. It is only fitting that we give our lives in service to Him.

So…I ask myself, and you ask yourself, what will 2024 look like for me? How can I abide in Christ this year? What does abiding in Christ look like in my personal life? In my family? In my church family? In my community? At my job? Abiding in Christ does not just happen without any effort on our part. It has to be intentional. We won’t continue to abide in Christ if we are not purposeful in it. Our choices are what keep us in Christ. Do we choose to set aside time for Bible study and prayer each day? Are we showing our children that example at home? Friends, that is where the fruit-bearing has to start, with our own families. But does it stop there? No, we continue to show Christ in our daily lives wherever we go, and we seek opportunities to share the gospel. Are we looking for those opportunities? Are we praying for opportunities? Are we giving of ourselves and our talents to the work of our congregation in whatever way we can? I hope 2024 finds each of us abiding in Him in everything we do. Our lives will be blessed and our cup running over if we do. Love you all! Happy New Year!! 

My friends…to abide in Jesus, we must first be in Him. We can’t abide in Jesus if we haven’t done what we need to do to be in Him. Are you in Christ? Are you a branch connected to the true vine, which is Jesus Christ? (John 15:1-8) Below I have added God’s plan of salvation with scripture references. If you need help understanding how to be saved, please reach out. I can help you or put you in contact with someone who can help you.

God’s Plan of Salvation

Below is the plan that God has set forth in His word, for mankind to receive His grace that leads to salvation and an eternity with God in heaven. 

We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 

Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 

Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 

Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 

Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)

Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)