Neither Can You
God, TheologyContributed by: Connecting Streams
Our unofficial theme yesterday for the Day of Prayer for Connecting Streams was “Abide in the Vine” on John 15.
[Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself so neither can you unless you abide in Me. John 15:4 (NASB) ]
And it reminded me of two trees that I bought a number of years ago for our front yard. Bought them both on the same day and planted them in the same soil. But what I didn’t realize is one of them was planted too close to the walkway so it stunted its growth. And for a long time I didn’t realize it. It looked like it was green, it looked like it was flourishing and going to make it but then one started to die.
It’s the same with our spiritual life. Sometimes we can go through the motions. We can look like everything’s fine on the outside but if our roots are shallow or there’s something blocking us receiving all that God has for us, then we’re not going to flourish and grow.
Our prayer for you this summer (for all of us actually) is that our roots will grow deep down into our relationship with the Lord; that His word will feed us, that we will grow and thrive and experience the gospel for ourselves. We all know that we have nothing to offer others unless we are growing in our relationship with Jesus ourselves. And when we do, then when we share with others, it comes from an authentic place, a real place, a genuine place of experience.
And so, we pray that this summer you’ll have fun, you’ll relax, you’ll enjoy yourselves and rest but most of all we pray that you’ll grow in your relationship with God. (We pray) that His word will go deep, that your prayer life will be richer, that you’ll experience deep peace, grateful hearts and that you’ll come back ready and refreshed.
And we’ve been praying as a staff as well – if you’re in a role that is actually stopping you from growing then we want to help you flourish and we’d love to talk with you, pray with you.
Hope you have a great summer.
Originally posted on: https://www.connectingstreams.com/portfolio-items/neither-can-you/?portfolioCats=875%2C879%2C884%2C876%2C666%2C883%2C878%2C896