Abiding Time

A man in prison is biding time. He is aware of his captivity. It is no life. He thinks about the past. He thinks about the future. The present is nothing more than marking off another day on the calendar.

You don’t have to be in prison to live this kind of life. Pain, depression, loneliness, confusion, bitterness, and many other “sin traps” can grip us and steal our freedom. Our life becomes meaningless. We want to get past this time of life. For now, we are just biding time. 

This picture happens to Christians far too often. Instead of biding time, we need to take more time to “abide.” Jesus calls us to “ABIDE IN ME” (John 15:4). “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” You may not be interested in bearing fruit. Jesus said, “…without me ye can do nothing” (vs. 5). Jesus is the “true vine” (vs. 1)

When we come to Christ and are born again, all things become new. We say goodbye to an old life and hello to a new life. If this doesn’t happen, we are not born again. Jesus is talking about this in John 15. The picture is of a vine (Jesus), and a branch (we that are in Him). The important thing is the connection. Jesus is simply saying, “Stay connected to me.” “Abide in me.” 

Without this connection, the Christian life becomes nothing. Our part is to abide. Our “abiding time” is our prayer time. I’m sure Jesus prayed without ceasing, yet we have pictures of Him going to the mountain to pray and praying in the garden alone. What I am saying is, “Get away from the world everyday and connect with Jesus for at least an hour.” If this sounds legalistic, do it your way. How is it working for you? Is your branch bearing fruit?

As a teenager, I found myself running away from a “haunted house.” My friend Ray and I had been exploring (trespassing) and heard someone in the house. We fled through a deserted orchard. From the second floor (the first floor windows were boarded up) someone yelled, “Stop!” Then a shot rang out. We heard a bullet zing over our heads. Ray ran faster. I fell down in the tall dead grass. Lying in the grass until my pursuer arrived, I noticed how the dead trees looked almost like skeletons. No doubt one day they were green, and probably bore fruit.

Later in life I lived in fruit country (Naches, WA). I have never lived around grape vineyards. I think some of the same “vine/branch” principles also apply to fruit trees. I noticed it was the little branches that bore the fruit. Fruit never grew on the trunk or supporting branches. The trunk and limbs had their part, but it was the tiny little green off-shoot that held the fruit. It is like Jesus said. Look at the investment that God makes. He pours himself out into tiny little “us.”

Our job is not to be big, but to be connected. This plan works so well that massive amounts of fruit are produced. I saw some branches loaded down with fruit so heavy that they had to be propped up to keep from breaking.

There is also the pruning. When Cleo Brown was asked when the best time for pruning was, he said, “There are only 52 days a year you can’t prune. Those are Sundays.” Jesus said in John 15:2, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” Branches allowed to grow wherever they want become a mess. They can grow too close together, then the light can’t shine into the tree. They also need to be far enough apart for the fruit to have room to grow. Cleo used to also say, “You can either grow fruit, or wood.” Most people don’t prune enough. The more we abide in him, the more Jesus is able to prune our day.

“Help me, Jesus, not to go to and fro, but in the direction that is going to bear fruit.” I will never forget seeing an apple four or five times the normal size hanging on a skinny little new tree. It was because the little tree was grafted into the root of a tree that had been cut out and removed. The root had so much to give. The little shoot of a tree couldn’t help but bear abundant fruit. The whole secret was in the abiding connection to the root.

Why live in sin’s prison when Jesus has already signed your pardon? “ABIDE IN ME,” Jesus calls!