God has a sense of humor. This morning we are jumping on a plane for a bit of a lark and I feel as if we are escaping the ordinary. All busyness goes on hold, no more heavy thinking, and just a small sense of putting our hands in the forbidden cookie jar. Then I open my devotional reading for today and am taken to 1 Peter 1:13-16. It says:
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
I almost laughed, then stopped myself. The commands of God are not to be taken lightly. We prayed about this little trip we are taking, and God has His purposes in permitting it. We may not know what lies in store, but we cannot put our accountability to Him on hold. Nor can we think that our enemy will pull back and let us take a vacation without throwing something at us to entice us away from the Lord.
For one thing, he is already pushing that sense of the forbidden cookie jar, which I now see as a temptation to drop back into my old way of thinking. I used to make short holidays like this all about satisfying me, but this one is not to be like that.
Instead, I must prepare my mind to do what God wants every day, even while on a holiday. I am to be self-controlled, not running around doing my own thing. I am also to remember the grace of God that has brought me this far in my life. I need to listen to the Lord no matter what I am doing. I can escape the daily pressures of home and work on a short retreat, but life itself is short. One day I will meet Jesus and I don’t want to have egg on my face when that happens.
Holiness means “set apart” and being holy signifies that I belong to God. Simply put, this passage says that I am to act like it, not just in church, not just in my daily routine, but also in this venture. Instead of obliviously doing my own thing without concern for Him, this is one more opportunity to seek the face of God and find out what He is up to in a new setting and in a different place than I have been before.
When Jesus says, “I am the vine and you are the branches,” I think of the many varieties of plants that are grafted to a hardy stock or root, such as roses and fruit trees. Without grafting, the desired species could not survive our winters, but I think that Jesus had more than cold winters in mind.
In this vivid word picture from John 15, He says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
God put me in Christ and Christ in me. Even though this spiritual reality entails far more than a simple tree grafting procedure, Jesus picks out one important factor common to both a grafted branch and my relationship with Him. If the branch remains grafted to the tree, it will produce fruit and not wither and die. If I remain ‘in Christ’ I will be fruitful, spiritually alive and vital in my faith. I need Him just as much as a grafted branch needs the tree.
The words Jesus spoke are both objective and subjective. That is, God placed me in Christ and Christ in me. I cannot change that objective fact. However, I can stop drawing on the resources of the One to whom I am grafted. That will make my life fruitless.
The illustration ends there. This passage is talking about those who remain in Christ (true believers) and those who profess faith but do not rely on Him for all things. Such ‘branches’ eventually wither and die because they are not true believers, not abiding in Him.
My forays into trusting myself have always meant failure in some way or another. If I don’t sin blatantly, I will embarrass myself with some dumb stunt or other. Jesus wants me to survive trials and temptations, and certainly the wrath of God on my sin, but more than that, He wants His life to flow in me in such a way that what I do has eternal value.
That makes me think of grand tasks of great ‘spiritual’ significance. So how much of the life of Christ does it take to do household chores, weed the garden, fetch the mail, and answer the phone?
For me, I need Him for those things too. When I’m abiding in Him, He does make a difference. Without Him, I am grumpy, full of negative thoughts, resentful, rude (as in when telemarketers call) and generally unhappy. Abiding in my Vine changes all that—to joy, wholesome and happy thoughts, and a good attitude. I am pleasant even to those who call in the middle of my lunch trying to sell me a vacation to Cancun.
Spirituality is not just for Sunday at church or Christian ministry. It is also for daily life. Today, I’ve a to-do list a mile long (because I spent yesterday making a dress and bonnet for my great granddaughter), and I’m very aware of my need to abide. Otherwise, by the end of today I will be crabby and unpleasant, and if something unforeseen keeps me from getting my work done, I could very well be a stressed and raving maniac!