Can we abide apart from Christ?

By Elizabeth Prata

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

We’ve been having the usual summer storms- thunder, lightning, rain, and wind. In some of these, people were without power. Many tree limbs came down.

There was a branch in my yard that came down. It was a biggish limb, torn right off from a large tree in the back yard. I’d planned to take a photo of it to illustrate the verse, but the yard was cleaned up before I came home from work. So I found this branch in the pasture instead.

Look at it. The limb is dead, that kind of dead, rusty brown that pine trees turn when they are good and dead. It is no longer connected to the tree. That limb can stay on the ground there as long as it wants but it will never do anything except lay there and get dead-er. It will not grow longer. It will not spring pine needles, It will not bear pine cones. It will not house birds. It will not shade worms. It will only lie there, dead.

It is apart from the tree.

Do not be apart from the vine. Jesus is the vine, providing life-flowing sustenance, strength, power. We can do nothing apart from Jesus. In Him is our only salvation, our only way toward holiness, our only blessing. Stay connected to the Vine. Let prayer, obedience, the Word of God rule your life. Abide in Him. If you do, you will flourish.