Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

THE BIG "IF"

This entry was posted on 10-17-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

The word "if" is key to understanding Jesus' teaching in this chapter. "IF you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7 NASB). Our prayers - actually God's answers to our prayers - are contingent upon our abiding in Christ...and His words abiding in us. We cannot pray to God "in Jesus' name" if we are not living in vital union with Him or if we are disregarding His words and teachings in our conscious thinking and everyday living. Andrew Murray says, "We bear so little fruit because there is so little prayer." Prayer is asking. "O Vine, send the spiritual nutrition I need to bear more fruit for the Vineyard Owner!"

A few years ago, while going through a difficult time in my life, I jotted down some personal thought on "Abiding with Christ." For what they are worth, here they are.

O Lord, abide in me. Because the enemy is strong, because my friends are few. Abide in me when the waters are rough, when the winds are strong, when the night is dark, when the road is long, when the load is heavy. Abide in me.

To abide with You means keeping the faith, maintaining integrity, continuing to hope against hope, loving my enemies, encouraging others (even when I am discouraged and may need encouragement more than they do.)

Abiding with Christ is like the marriage relationship. You stay together through the tough times. You remain faithful to each other because that is what you vowed you would do.

Abiding with Christ is like a close friendship. Jesus is that friend who sticks closer than a brother. I don't have many really close friends but I stay close to them. I talk to them, even if it's on the phone. I communicate with them via email. Sometimes I pray with them or weep with them (or for them). I stay with them through thick and thin, in the bad times as well as in the good times.

Hymn: "I come to the Garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses; and the Voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known" (C. Austin Miles).