What is our relationship with Jesus Christ really like? We wake up every day and thank God for a new day and we spend some time with Him in prayer. We then do our bible study, devotion or what ever form of study into God’s word we are doing at the time. We may ask ourselves every day what our relationship with Jesus Christ is really like. It is a way to self examine where we are in our own Christian life. It is so easy to get off course in our relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ, we all have done it in our own life. It happens so gradual and yet it spiraled out of control so quickly and before we knew it, we were living in such a way that we didn’t even look like a Christian, we looked just like the sinful world. We should be so thankful that God is long suffering and that when we come to the realization that God’s way is the only way and we run back to Him that He welcomes us home with His arms open wide. When we re-dedicate our life to Jesus Christ we know that it is up to us to keep ourselves on the narrow path (Matthew 7:13-14). We are the only one that can make sure that we focus on God’s way and not our own way. It is us who must study His word with a servant’s heart and to follow Him with that same mindset. We must be the one to put forth the effort to keep our relationship with Jesus Christ where it needs to be.

What is our relationship with Him supposed to be like? We are given a clear example in John 15:1-17. “I am the true vine, you are the branches” Grape orchards were quite common in the hills and valleys of Israel back in biblical days. Let us give this some thought for a moment and hopefully as we read this that we will apply this thought to our own lives. Jesus Christ is the source of what we need as nutrients. He is The Vine and he sinks his roots into the ground to gather all we need. Water, nutrients, minerals etc and then all that we need is channeled through the vine till it reaches the branches, which is us as a Christian believer and follower. We receive all we need from Jesus and then we blossom. We are not just any old branch but we are pruned, ready to grow, pruned by Jesus. John 15:3 “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” we are pruned by Jesus, ready to grow and become a fruit bearing branch of The Living God.

As a branch we must remain connected to the vine in order to produce fruit. We can’t decide to just go off on our own doing things our own way. John 15:5 “He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing” If there’s no abiding with The Lord then there will be no fruit. Let’s study for a moment what “abiding” means. In this passage the word means to stay, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand. It is very simple, don’t go anywhere. Stay close in our relationship with Jesus. Without a relationship with Jesus Christ we will not be a bearer of fruit. We will not grow as a Christian. We will not blossom.

We must live our lives as if we have taken up residence with Jesus and live with Him every day ‘abiding’ with him in all we do, all we say and all that we are. We can’t when our life gets tough run off and do it our own way. We must seek God’s way. We must remain with Jesus. In John 15:11 it tells us the result of ‘abiding’ with him. “that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full”. That is one of the things most of us seek most in life? Joy, just simple joy in our lives. That special on top of this world, pure happiness, peace with ourselves and those around us? Jesus is saying that full joy, is what we will enjoy if we ‘abide’ in HIM. There is no other way to have that total peace, no way to experience that pure joy, no way for this without Jesus. It will only be available to us when we ‘abide’, stay, remain, camp out with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We want that joy for our lives, that inner peace, that happiness where no matter what we face we can get through it with love in our heart and a smile on our face. So we must choose to ‘dwell’ daily with Jesus. We must choose to abide with Him in every walk of life we take. We must choose to remain in a close relationship with Jesus Christ forever. We must choose to stand for God in all we say and do. We must choose to pitch our tent and camp out for the rest of our lives with Jesus Christ. We want to wake up and make a point to choose that every day. Let us make that decision today?

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