abiding

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me..."

If you take away anything from this, I hope that you read these verses and the Lord speaks to you in a way that he never has before.

Fun fact: I have the word "abide" tattooed on my wrist. Will I regret this one day? Perhaps (lol sorry mom). Did I feel like a baddie going into Born This Way to get my tiny tattoo? Oh yeah. However, this tattoo is a really cool reminder that I see every single day. When I got it, I thought, “Oh, abide! Remain in Jesus no matter what! Choose him over everything that the world offers you! Always." And that was about that. And, while these are great reminders, this word means so much more to me now and I read these verses in John 15 in total awe of how deep Jesus wants to take us into a relationship with Him.

To me, Jesus is essentially saying, "stick with me" "be with me" or "choose me" over and over throughout John 15. He insists that we are, on our own, fruitless beings & cannot do literally one single thing without Him. More than that, we will wither and die without Him. I know that when I do not actively spend time with Jesus and seek Him throughout my day, I kind of feel like I'm dying on the inside. So I get what He means. Jesus should be so much more to us than an afterthought. It breaks my heart to think of all of the things I put before Him on a daily basis. Or just straight up choose not to spend time with Him altogether.

I think about the song "Oceans" by Hillsong when I think about this concept of abiding in Jesus. "Take me deeper than my feet could ever wonder." When I read these verses, I cannot help but believe that Jesus wants so much more for us than we could ever begin to imagine. We settle for lukewarm love + a lukewarm relationship with Him when He constantly offers us so much more. Wake up, do life, get in bed, pray real quick before you fall asleep, repeat. Nuh uh. What would life look like if we were actively walking through live striving to be with Jesus above all else?

The vine and branch metaphor shown in John 15 paints a picture of just how close Jesus desires to be with us. These two things, the vine and the branch, are very close-knit. Interwoven, in fact. The vine cannot thrive, or exist, even, without the branch.

Think about the kind of relationship that you believe that Jesus wants with you while imagining this metaphor.

The words Jesus says in this passage are said the night before He is about to go die on the cross, little do His followers know. This is, in a word, an (extremely) intimate conversation between Jesus and His closest friends. One of the last conversations Jesus had with his followers was centered around Him making sure they knew how cherished they, as His people, are. And how much He desires to love and be with them. No matter what. He wants to be even closer to us than a vine is to its branches. The word abide, in short, means to remain. But I think Jesus uses this word to mean: constancy, intimacy, dependence, continual connection, deeply relational, reliance, source of life. This word describes a deep, deep love. A love that we can't even comprehend, hope, or dream for. But it's a love we can have with Jesus! A love that truly is a source of life, offering wholeness, security, consistency, joy, purpose, peace.

So think about your relationship with Jesus right now. Did these words come to mind? If not, how would your relationship with Him change so that your relationship with Jesus reflected words like constancy, intimacy, and continual connection? I ask myself this question real often. I cry out to Him to show me what life with Him can look like. To fill me with this love that He offers. To constantly allow me to see how worthless a lukewarm relationship is. I pray that Jesus gives me the desire to have a relationship on an incredibly deep level with Him. And that He will show me what it truly means to abide in Him the way He intends.

Over the past couple years, the word abide has transformed from a word that simply meant "remain" (which, to be clear, it does mean that) to a word that has so much passion and love behind it. I pray that we can all experience this deep love that only Jesus himself can give us.