John 15
Well, I’m sorry to say that today I have the perfect example to write on for John 15, 1-17.
Vs 4 “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” Vs 5 For apart from me you can do nothing.” Vs 9-11 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! These are some highlights from the chapter, but take the time to read the entire chapter as there is so much more than I can address here.
I’ve had a busy few days and gotten less sleep than I need the last few nights. You have all been in this spot…tired, a little overwhelmed and generally sick of the grind. When I woke this morning, I was not ready to face my list of things to do so I made the decision to lay in my bed for a few minutes and scroll through my phone before getting up and heading to my first apt for the day. Sounds harmless, I know. The issue is that a few months back I had gotten into a bad rut of running too hard at life and my time with God was getting squeezed out regularly instead of just occasionally. I was miserable, my heart was heavy in almost every relationship I was in, I wasn’t getting direction from God so I had no idea how to proceed in some seriously tough situations and I missed my Creator, Friend, Helper, Father and Confidant. When I finally made time to sit down and confess my selfishness with Him, He asked, What are you going to do from here on out to not land in this spot again in your life? As I was mulling over my options and feeling really frustrated because I knew my schedule wasn’t going to be slowing down anytime soon, He softly said to me, How about you commit to not looking at your phone when you wake up until you have met with Me? (I think we all know, and God for sure knows, how many minutes or portions of an hour we can mindlessly pass through while scrolling through FaceBook, Instagram, the news, texts, emails, or “one more level” of our favorite game.) I resisted in my heart to committing to His plan. I know myself well enough to know that I prefer a slower start to the day. I’m not at my best first thing in the morning and I had consciously decided several years back that I wanted God to have my best time so I chose then to meet with Him later in the day after I had cleared the sleep cobwebs out of my brain a little. Since I made that “later morning” commitment my life has gone through some changes, and my schedule looks very different then it did at that time. Back to my conversation with God this morning. In His perfect wisdom He asked me another question while I was fighting with myself over agreeing to His new plan. He gently asked, How is that portion of an hour more valuable to you, with Me or your phone? It is blatantly obvious what is best for me. I surrendered and committed to change my time with Him. I even addressed my jumbled and wondering mind first thing in the morning and God graciously agreed to help redirect me back to our topic at hand if/when my mind wondered first thing in the morning. So now you understand the weight of my decision to pick up my phone this morning. I wish I had chosen differently. I chose to separate from The Vine today. I chose my phone over remaining in His love. This one decision was bad enough, but because I wasn’t connected to Him from the start today, I missed His voice later in the day when He was warning me away from another bad decision. My second poor choice of the day affected other people. My stomach was in knots while I was working over every angle of the mess in my mind to try to free myself and get out from under my choice. For about an hour, there was no way out. I was completely out of control of the situation I had created and all I could do was wait to see what the fall out would be.
Two important things:
One, God didn’t pull His love away from me even though I sinned and chose to separate from Him this morning. He still spoke to me, still tried to slow me down and give me time to think through my decision before I sinned a second time. Because I pulled away from Him first thing this morning, I wasn’t connected later and blew right by His gracious warning. I landed myself in a mess because I didn’t pay attention to my Vine’s voice.
Two, My joy was gone for the entire morning! I experienced the polar opposite of joy; worry, frustration, fear, and dread. I was overflowing with stomach acid instead of joy. Jesus was really clear in Vs 9-11 that our joy is connected to our obedience to His commands and I was sitting in the middle of a perfect life lesson for this truth.
I do not deserve the resolution that God provided me this morning. He managed things in a way that only He could and He kept the damages minimal. Again, God out-loved me. He is the true vine and remains in me when I remain in Him..and even sometimes when I don’t. I’m in awe today of Love so full, so rich, so complete, so selfless, so forgiving and so personal!