IF YE ABIDE
If Ye Abide in Me, and My Words, Abide in You, Ask Whatsoever
Ye Will, and it Shall be Done Unto You--John 15:7
The reason the Vine and its branches
are such a true parable of the Christian life is that all nature
has one source and breathes one spirit. The plant world was created
to be to man an object lesson teaching him his entire dependence
upon God, and his security in that dependence. He that clothes
the lilies will much more cloth us. He that gives the trees and
the vines their beauty and their fruits, making each what He meant
it to be, will much more certainly make us what He would have
us to be. The only difference is what God works in the trees is
by a power of which they are not conscious. He wants to work in
us with our consent. This is the nobility of man, that he has
a will that can cooperate with God in understanding and approving
and accepting what He offers to do.
If ye abide--Here is the
difference between the branch of the natural and the branch of
the spiritual Vine. The former abides by force of nature: the
latter abides, not by force of will, but by a divine power given
to the consent of the will. Such is the wonderful provision God
has made that, what the power of nature does in the one case,
the power of grace will do in the other. The branch can abide
in the Vine.
If ye abide in me...ask whatsoever
ye will--If we are to live a true prayer life, with the love
and the power and the experience of prayer marking it, there must
be no question about the abiding. And if we abide, there need
be no question about the liberty of asking what we will, and the
certainty of its being done. There is the one condition: "If
ye abide in me." There must be no hesitation about the possibility
or the certainty of it. We must gaze on that little branch and
its wonderful power of bearing such beautiful fruit until we truly
learn to abide.
And what is its secret? Be wholly
occupied with Jesus. Sink the roots of your being in faith and
love and obedience deep down into Him. Come away out of every
other place to abide here. Give up everything for the inconceivable
privilege of being a branch on earth of the glorified Son of God
in Heaven. Let Christ be first. Let Christ be all. Do not be occupied
with the abiding--be occupied with Christ! He will hold you, He
will keep you abiding in Him. He will abide in you.
If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you--This He gives as the equivalent of the other
expression: "I in you. If my words abide in you"--that
is, not only in meditation, in memory, in love, in faith--all
these words enter into your will, your being, and constitute your
life--if they transform your character into their own likeness,
and you become and are what they speak and mean--ask what ye will;
it shall be done unto you. Your words to God in prayer will be
the fruit of Christ and His words living in you.
Ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you--Believe in the truth of this promise. Set
yourself to be an intercessor for men; a fruit-bearing intercessor,
ever calling down more blessing. Such faith and prayer will help
you wonderfully to abide wholly and unceasingly.
If ye abide. Yes, Lord, the
power to pray and the power to prevail must depend on this abiding
in Thee. As Thou art the Vine, Thou art the divine Intercessor,
who breathest Thy spirit in us. Oh, for grace to abide simply
and wholly in Thee, and ask great things!
Go
To: Table of Contents