John 15:4-10 (Amplified Bible)
4) Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.
5) I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.
6) If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.
7) If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
8) When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.
9) I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love continue in His love with Me].
10) If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and live on in His love.
Tonight I sat and talked with my God daughter. It was our night to catch up after weeks of life happening and us not having a moment to sit face to face to conversate. Our conversation usually is light and funny, informative and bridges the gap between the last time we spent time with the present. Tonight was no different, until we began to talk about relationships. We were having exchanging comments and then she made a comment about this young man that she is seeing now, this man that she loves, where the love she feels is translated in her conversations about him and in her eyes when she speaks of him, in her tone when she says his name and in the delight when she relays a story about them. Her comment was "Mom I know it is different, I know it is love for real, with him because when thing are not right between us things are not right with me at all." She went on to to relay that before in relationships things could be wrong and she could continue on, but with him, things virtually stop. In that moment I could hear in my spirit shouldn't that be the feeling that we get, when things are not right with us and God then things should not be right in our world?
For so many of us, it is the latter example, the example that things are wrong with with our relationship with God, but instead of us feeling a twinge of conviction or a yearning to get back to God we continue on living or life without missing a beat. Our life is ill affected by our missteps and mistakes with God. When we are out of alignment with God we do not even notice, because for many of us we are desensitized to God and our hearts are hardened. We do not pray, we do not worship or for many more of us it is not the aesthetic things, it is that we do not listen for God's voice and follow after NO OTHER. We become bound and determined to do things according to our own standard, believing that God will forgive and overlook our willful disobedience and our choice to live our lives not according to His will but according to OUR WILL. You see when we really fall in love with Jesus we want to please Him at all cost and we will do just what He tells us to do no matter what it cost us, we will obey, we can say just as Jesus said in the garden Never the less not my will but yours be done.
Has your love waxed cold, tired or just rebellious? Most us would answer with a resounding no. but if we are ill effected by our relationship stands with God then something is surely wrong. If we know that there are places in our lives that God does not live, that God does not dwell and that has become the norm and we have become okay with that, I think we need to know what is abiding in there. For I know if things are not right between God and I then it is highly doubtful that things will be right in my world. That is how I know He has my heart like no one else...
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