As I said yesterday, the main imperative flowing out of the vine metaphor in John 15 is this: remain in Christ. How do you remain in him? The first thing you need to know is that your heart is not trustworthy. As a car whose wheels are out of alignment tends to sway off the road so our hearts tend to stray off God’s path. You can’t even depend on yourself to notice when this is happening. You must depend on the work of ‘the Counsellor’, the Holy Spirit. Keep short accounts with God. Be aware of things that feed your wayward inclinations and pursue things that help to make your spirit strong against these inclinations. Feed your heart with Scripture, challenging teaching and inspiring music. Spend regular time just seeking and worshipping God. We have conflicting desires at work within us. The key to remaining in Christ therefore is to cultivate and feed the right desires and deny those desires that would cause us to turn away from God. To feed a desire is to act on it. If you obey your wayward desires they will grow stronger. On the other hand, the more you obey God and move with the desires of his Spirit at work within you, the more God’s desires will rule within you. As Jesus said: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.” It is not that we thereby earn God’s love. Rather by obedience we remain open to his unconditional love for us.
Spend time seeking and worshipping God.
Read John 15:1-17 again
