\u201cOh to be independent! To not have anyone tell me what to do\u2026 to be myself\u2026 to be free!\u201d From the first man and woman until now, the desire for independence has been a powerful force. But while true freedom is one of the greatest gifts of God, He knows we will only receive it as we live in dependence on Him.<\/p>\n
This is the way Jesus lived and He calls us to trust Him. \u201cJust as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.\u201d (John 6:57) \u201cI do nothing on My own but speak just what the Father has taught Me.\u201d (John 8:28) \u201cBy Myself, I can do nothing\u2026\u201d (John 5:30)<\/p>\n
Such dependence was not a burden for Jesus\u2026 it was life. And this \u201clife was the light of all mankind.\u201d (John 1:4) So He invites us to follow: \u2018Come to Me\u2026 surrender your life and find it in Me. I am the true Vine who has the perfect Gardener. You are a branch who can only live by staying connected to Me. Depend on Me and you will thrive. Trust the Vine and the Gardener and you will bear fruit\u2026 lasting fruit that pleases the Father.\u2019 (see John 15)<\/p>\n
In the preface to his book \u2018Abide in Christ,\u2019 South African pastor Andrew Murray, who lived from 1828-1917, wrote:<\/p>\n
I ask to be permitted to give one word of advice to my reader. It is this. It needs time to grow into Jesus the Vine: do not expect to abide in Him unless you will give Him that time. It is not enough to read God\u2019s Word, or meditations as here offered, and when we think we have hold of the thoughts, and have asked God for His blessing, to go out in the hope that the blessing will abide. No, it needs day by day time with Jesus and with God\u2026 If we are to live through Jesus, we must feed on Him; we must thoroughly take in and assimilate that heavenly food the Father has given us in His life. Therefore, take time each day, ere you read, and while you read, and after you read, to put yourself in contact with the living Jesus, to yield yourself distinctly and consciously to His blessed influence; so will you give Him the opportunity of taking hold of you, of drawing you up and keeping you safe in His almighty life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cI will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body will also rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.\u201d Psalm 16:7-11<\/p>\n
\u2018Abide in Christ\u2019 by Andrew Murray, \u00a91985, Barbour and Company, Inc., Westwood, N.J., p 7<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cOh to be independent! To not have anyone tell me what to do\u2026 to be myself\u2026 to be free!\u201d From the first man and woman until now, the desire for independence has been a powerful force. But while true freedom is one of the greatest gifts of God, He knows we will only receive it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3497,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions\/3497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}