Sunday, June 2, 2013

Wk 1 Day 6 - Fifty Days of Prayer - John 15:5

Jesus said,
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit,
because apart from me
you can do nothing.
John 15:5

David Chotka likes to quote verses like John 5:30.

Jesus shed his divinity to come to earth in human form. Therefore, Jesus says, “I can do nothing of my own initiative. … Therefore, I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

The key for our life – our prayer life and our daily life – is to substitute our name for Jesus’, saying, “Ed can effectively do nothing his own. Therefore, I’m a million times better off seeking not my will but God’s will to be done.”

Wait! Can I really do nothing on my own?

Think of it as a matter of scales.
  • With a word, God can create moons and stars and a million distant galaxies.
  • With a lot of effort, maybe I could build a small house (but it’d probably have leaky pipes and flickering lights).
  • With clay and his breath, God create eyes and hearts and lungs and brains and cells and … and … life!
  • With clay and my own two hands, I can create a lopsided pot that someone else has to bake in a kiln. 
  • With easy, God makes the sun rise every morning.
  • With difficult, I get out of bed most mornings.
  • With delight, God hears a billion pray-requests an hour.
  • With difficulty, I struggle to find time, some days, to adequately pray.
  • Because of his wisdom, God leads billions of people daily.
  • Because of my stupidity, I find myself needing to apologize to a dozen people daily.

Yes, I can technically accomplish a little “more than nothing.” But what are my efforts really worth? They’re a drop of water in the ocean. Two generations from now, even my own great-grandchildren won’t know anything about me.

And yet, God gives me a lever! He gives me a way to accomplish more than I ever could on my own. He gives me a way to make an eternal difference in the world. Do you know what that is?

I can join him!

Me alone = 1. Me plus God = infinity.

It costs us something, though.

It costs our pride, our will, our plans, and our initiative. Jesus says – John 5:30 – “I will lay aside my own will and initiative, and I will seek to do only what God wills and initiates.”  

In our lesson for today, Jesus advises us to do surgery. We are call to amputate our pride, will, plans, and selfish initiative. And we are called to surgically attach ourselves to Jesus – the vine. When we do that, his life flows through us. Indeed, when we do that, we can be more than conquerors through him who loves us (see Romans 8).

In Christ’s Love,
a guy who wants to be called
“Mr. Branch”


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