Live in Love
Okay, you get one warning and here it is: put on your mushy-female-talk
ear plugs, because here it comes! I love
my husband! In the almost four years we’ve
known each other we’ve had very few if any disagreements and never had harsh
words towards each other. I know how
rare this is in a marriage, and I value that we have a relationship that is built
on pleasing God and each other above self.
We purposefully do things that are pleasing to the
other. Every morning Don will take a
break from his devotional time, and come give me a good morning hug when I wake
up. Why? Because I love his good morning
hugs! And he always makes my coffee and
has my cup sitting by the coffee pot.
When I plan the week’s dinners, I always ask him what he wants to eat. I do that because I love cooking for him and
seeing him happy with what I cooked. At night
I’ll wrap up in a blanket instead of turning down the air because I know he
likes it cooler. And these little things
we do every day prove out the love that’s in our hearts.
You may say it sounds like endless sacrifice. Well, it is – for both of us. But we get to live in love every day. We live knowing that there is one on this
earth that values us more than they value themselves.
In John 15, Jesus talks to us in the first seven verses about
abiding in His love, and abiding in Him.
As you read it, you understand that with his many repetitions of the two
phrases that Jesus is making a point:
“I am the true vine,
and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit
He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear
more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to
you. ABIDE IN ME, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it ABIDES IN THE VINE, neither can you, unless you ABIDE IN ME. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who ABIDES
IN ME, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If
anyone does not ABIDE IN ME, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and
they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you ABIDE
IN ME, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be
done for you.” – John 15:1-7
Fellowship and friendship with Jesus means living in ways
that seek to please Him above ourselves.
It is sometimes a sacrificial love.
He lives in us through the Holy Spirit from the time of our salvation. He “abides” in us. We become part of the vine that is Him at
that time. But we make a choice as to
whether we are going to be a branch on the vine and bear fruit, or whether we
are going to be of no value, wither away, and be cut off.
Does this mean that if you don’t live up to Jesus’
expectations you become lost again? Is
this fire that Jesus talks about hell? Absolutely
not! When Jesus gives us live, it is
ETERNAL life – not temporary (John 3:16).
If we could live according to Jesus’ expectations all the time, then
there would be no need for a perfect Savior.
We are saved by grace and not by our works (Ephesians 2:8). These verses mean that if we choose to live
to please ourselves we cannot expect true fellowship and friendship with
Him. We’re not talking about salvation,
but about fellowship. You are still a
branch, but not all branches on a vine bear fruit, and some bear thorns
(Hebrews 6). A good vinedresser will cut
these off to give more energy and power from the vine to those that are
fruitful. And as the verse 7 says, there
are benefits to that tight relationship to the vine in that what we desire, we
can ask for and receive.
Being a dead branch on Christ is a lot like being in a dead
marriage. There’s a lack of
communication, a loss of heart-felt love, and every day is just and endless
saga of going through the motions. But YOU
get to choose whether you want that life of endless conflict and disappointment,
or to live feeling loved. If Jesus’
words abide in you – as a love letter is remembered by a wife – then you will
live a life in love with the only one who can truly love YOU. YOU can live feeling the love of Christ.
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