New Believer’s Path · Lesson 1 of 7 · Remaining in the Lord · about 5 min
How is such fruit produced?
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-5 · WEB
In seventeenth-century France there was a young man who had been a footman and, by his own account, ‘a great awkward fellow who broke everything’. One winter, at the age of eighteen, he saw a tree stripped of its leaves and thought how before long the leaves would be renewed, and then the flowers and fruit would appear. For the first time he truly grasped the providence of God.
Later he entered a monastery in Paris and was sent to the kitchen—the work he naturally disliked most. By the time he talked about these things, he had been working in the kitchen for fifteen years. He said, ‘In the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Supper.’ He is Brother Lawrence, whose words were gathered in The Practice of the Presence of God.
Source: Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, First, Second and Fourth Conversations · Read in the library: The Practice of the Presence of God
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gave his disciples the most homely of pictures: the vine and the branches. A branch does not have to strain to bear fruit; it only has to stay joined to the vine.
After coming to faith, many people think that from now on it is up to them to ‘try hard to be a good Christian’. But the first thing Jesus says is “Remain in me.” (John 15:4-5) Fruit comes from being joined to him, not from gritting our teeth.
‘Remaining’ sounds very spiritual, but in daily life it is quite concrete: set aside a time each day, in a set place, become still and turn your heart to him. It does not need to be long, and you do not need many words. A branch does not need to know how the sap flows; it only needs to stay.
This week we do just one small thing: find a set time and place, and be still for five minutes each day. You can read the verse above, you can say ‘Lord, here I am’, or you can say nothing at all.
“Remain in ___, and I in you.”
According to this passage, how can a branch bear fruit?
Each day, at a set time and in a set place, be still for 5 minutes.
Just this one thing, so small you cannot fail. Write it down and it goes into your Rule of Life card.
Added to your Rule of Life card. Tap each day you do it this week: