Today’s
Scripture: 1 John 2:3-6
“By this we may be sure
that we are in Him: he who says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way
in which He walked.”
Today’s Daily Devotion
This
phrase, abides in Him, means
exactly the same thing as fellowships
with Him. The Lord Jesus made that clear when He said, as is recorded in
John, “No
branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you
bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John
15:4b).
You can be in Christ, as a member of the vine, and bear only
leaves. That is a mere relationship. But if you want fruit in your life, there
must be that further attitude of abiding in Him, resting in Him. That is what
produces significant results in life.
The sign of
abiding is to walk in the same way in which Christ walked. That does not mean
to do the same things that Jesus did; that means to act from the same principle
upon which He acted, to reflect the same kind of relationship to the Father
that He had. That is the sign of fellowship.
What was the
secret of our Lord's power? That is what brought Nicodemus to Him by night: to
try to search out the secret if he could. Many others came wondering what the
secret of His power was. The amazing thing was that He kept telling people what
it was. But we skip over it with easy disregard. He said,
“The Son of Man does not do these things of Himself. That
is, I'm not doing this; the Father who dwells in Me is doing it. I don't
speak these words of Myself, but I speak only that which I hear the Father say.
It's the Father who speaks the words; it's the Father who does the work. I am a
man, available to Him, but He is in Me, and His working in Me is the secret of
the things that I do. I am simply counting on Him every minute to be at work
and to do these things, and He does them.” (John 14:10-11).
That is the great secret, and that
is one of the hardest things for Christians to learn. How did He walk? He
walked in total, unrelenting, unbroken fellowship and dependence upon the
activity of the Father who indwelt Him.
But that
seems so hard for us to learn. With us, it is the Son of God who lives within
us, and He has come to reproduce the effect of His death and the power of His
resurrection—to live again His life in us. But we have such difficulty with
this. Our attitude is, Please, Father, I'd rather do it myself We are
brought up with the idea that we have in ourselves an ability to act
significantly, that God is looking to us to act on His behalf, and if we fail
Him, the whole program will fall apart, but if we do accomplish something for
God, He should be eternally grateful to us for our faithfulness.
But this is
not what a Christian is called to do. A quiet, unrelenting dependence upon an
indwelling God to be always at work in us, reproducing the value of His death
and the power of His resurrection—that is what Christianity is, that is what
fellowship is, and that is what abiding in Him means.
Today’s Questions: What does it mean to have the life of Christ in us?
Have you grasped this abiding reality that Jesus demonstrated to us as the way
for us to walk with God?
Today’s Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that You are making provision for me,
filling me with Your very life. I pray that I may grasp this more and more and
cooperate with You in it.
Please feel
free to leave a comment…
