Day 88 — Remain In Him

John 15: 4-5  
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 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. 

At the beginning of lockdown, everyone suddenly seemed to have a lot of free time. I decided to learn a new instrument, enrolled myself onto an online course and to learn a new language. All these things were an attempt to fill up my now emptier schedule. The first few weeks were great, I was in a good routine, picking up new skills, loving the time and space to explore but I quickly ran out of steam.

I quickly realised that my motives for wanting to learn new skills were misplaced. While gaining new skills was an admirable and valuable task, the motivation behind it was not. I was motivated to act because I wanted to fill up my time not because I genuinely wanted to up-skill. My motivation to up-skill would not bear any useful fruit because I was doing it in my own strength.

There will be times when we find ourselves doing things in our own strength and finding it difficult to be fruitful. When we feel ourselves in those periods, it is important to shift our focus back to God and abiding in Him constantly. John Piper in a sermon said, ‘Hour-by-hour abiding in Jesus means hour-by-hour trusting him to meet all your needs and be all our treasure’. When we abide in Christ constantly, we can be sure to find the right source of motivation. Constantly leaning on, trusting and seeking God deepens our relationship with him. 

Prayer: Father, thank you that you call us into relationship with You. Thank you that we can constantly lean on you and become more like you. Help us today to constantly keep you first. Amen.

Tendi Mudzvovera