Remain In Me

REMAIN IN ME

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord. Quiet my mind. Open my heart.

Give me ears to hear your invitation and the faith to respond.

I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.

If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? “A slave is not greater than the master.” Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: “They hated me without cause.”

But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.

Jesus used the image of a vine and its branches to help his disciples better understand his relationship to the Father, his disciples’ relationship to him, and their relationship to the world. Jesus continues to invite us to stay connected to him as a branch stays connected to the vine, taking all its nutrients and strength from the vine. In doing so, we are empowered to bear fruit—to love as Jesus calls us to. If we separate ourselves from Jesus, we end up incapable of loving others and keeping his commands.

• Have there been times when you have felt disconnected from God? What caused that disconnection?
• Read this passage again slowly. What invitation related to staying connected to Jesus do you sense he is extending to you?
• Do you know someone who is feeling disconnected from God? Seek God’s guidance as to how you might be able to invite that person back into a connection with Christ.

Loving God, thank you for the invitation to stay connected to Jesus as the source of my love and strength. There are times I get caught up in the busyness of life and the calls of this culture and drift off, away from the vine. Help me keep my eyes fixed on you and the things you care about so I can glorify you by the fruit I bear. May people come to know your love by looking at my life. Amen.