"Remain in me"

Remain in Me

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

How do we “remain” in Jesus?

I think it has a lot to do with prayer. I’m sure like many of you, I grew up in the church, and I remember that when I was young, prayer always seemed boring.

We clasped our hands, closed our eyes, and bowed our heads as the pastor prayed for what seemed like eternity. But as I grew older, again, I’m sure like many of you, Jesus became more real to me, and my prayer life started to change.

There’s nothing wrong with the posture of folding your hands and closing your eyes—I still sometimes take that posture to concentrate.

But as I grew in faith, prayer became much more about spending time with God. I not only learned to praise God and lift up my requests to him; I also learned to spend time reading the Bible and listening for what the Spirit had to say.

Spending time with Jesus in prayer, allows us to be more patient—even in the midst of life’s challenges. On days when there is too much to do, you find yourself being kinder and slower in your responses to others. And more likely to look for and respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.

And thank the Lord we’re able to spend time in his presence through prayer. And that he’s able to help us to be intentional about spending time with him so that his love and grace can transform us to become more like him.