What does it take to stay tethered? Why did Jesus use some of his last words to remind us to abide? Priscilla Shirer unpacks the wisdom of John 15:4, challenging us to remain in relationship with our Father.

Priscilla started our journey off with the story of two different ponds. One is able to maintain its proper depth despite a lack of rain, and the other dries out almost completely in a season of drought. Two ponds, two outcomes. Why? Their source.

In today’s world, the parallels are unmatched.

There is something really special about being out in the country, or near the mountains, or on a beach. It gets you out of the ordinary, and creation gives you enough to do that you will never get bored. We can learn a lot from the terrain and how the land works.

When a pond has a spring to replenish its water from deep underground, it is able to sustain through seasons of drought because the source of its life isn’t dependent on external forces. Compare this to a man-made pond, and you see where we’re heading with this example.

Words of truth are nourishment for our souls and put bluntly, crucial for a life spent following Jesus. Why? Without an ongoing and active source of this truth coming up inside of you, you won’t have the sustained hope, peace, joy, contentment, grace, or fulfillment that life will require when a drought comes. We need something on the inside that doesn’t need something from the outside to keep us steady and strong.

This is so important that on the day before Jesus’ death, a death He knew was on the way, He focused intensely on teaching His disciples this very principle. Jesus knew all the disciples’ hopes were pinned on Him and that they would experience immense disappointment in the hours to come as he would arrested, tried, and sentenced to death.

What do you do when someone you love only has a few more words available for you before they are going to leave? You lean in and intently listen with all that you have so as not to miss a single word. As you read, watch as the disciples are doing just this as Jesus is intentionally sharing with them exactly what He wants them to know before He is crucified, raised, and ascended away from them.

Jesus has just finished the Last Supper. He washed the disciples’ feet and predicted that he would be betrayed by one he loved. Jesus assured their hearts not to be troubled and reminded them that He would prepare a place for them. He told them He would ask His Father to send another Helper to come. He promised to leave peace with them, and on the heels of all of this, their beloved teacher led them out of the city to the Mount of Olives.

The route they would have taken to get the the Garden of Gethsemane would have been familiar to them. They would have passed grapes on the vine. Vineyards represented joy, festivities, and the abundance of community. If you close your eyes you can Imagine the scene as Jesus stopped at one of those vineyards and spoke these specific seven words from John 15 to them. The words that would come to continually nourish them through all years to come. “Abide in me, and I in you.”

Simple, yet profound in its implication. This is one of the most critical messages Jesus leaves with His disciples. Abide in Him, and He promises to abide in them. When everything is lost…Jesus says there is only one thing that would give them the continuous sustenance and nourishment they would need to have a well of joy and hope that overrides in times like these, and He says the same thing to us today: “Abide in me, and I in you.”

“Abide” was a very important word to John. He uses it 40 times in his gospel and 27 times in the letters of 1, 2, and 3 John. The original word in Greek is “meno” and means “to remain, to stay.” This word implies an interconnection / to be immersed with. Think of a tea bag in hot water. It just hangs out there and abides. The longer the tea sits in the hot water, the stronger the tea gets.

The strength of your life depends on whether or not you choose to remain, to stay rooted and steady.

Can that be said of your life? Are you someone who stays with Jesus no matter the season or circumstances? Are you consistent? Do you find yourself immersed in Him some days but far from Him on others? Do you just turn to Jesus when life throws a challenge at you but forget to celebrate Him when the days are smooth? Take stock of just the last few months of your life; how steady have you been sitting with your Savior?

Abiding is about deepening your friendship with Jesus. Do you talk to Him? Do you make the room for Him to to talk back to you? Is your life immersed in His? Do you obey Him and heed His conviction?

This may sound as if it is going to change your lifestyle dramatically. It will, and it should. Over every other calling or ambition in your life should sit the desire to cultivate your relationship with Jesus. The well you are going to need to keep your filled up when there is a drought in the world around you is only going to come from that abiding relationship.

The philosopher Sam Pasco once said, “Christianity began in the land of the Bible as a fellowship, a relationship. It moved on to Greece and became an institution, a place you go. Then it moved to Rome, and in Rome, it became a philosophy, a way people think. Then, it moved from Rome to Europe, and it became a culture, a way of life. Then, from Europe, Christianity came to America, and it became an enterprise, a business. Now, it’s just what we do.” 

Lord help us if Christianity is what we do and not who we are.

John 15:1 says, “I am the Vine and you are the branches. My Father is the vinedresser.” KJV

The whole of chapter 15 is a must read. Jesus is describing three players in a working vineyard. The vine, the branches, and the vinedresser. The Vine, Jesus, provides all the nutrients, elements, and life for the branch, us, to remain steady, flourish, and produce the fruit that it was designed and planted to produce. All of what the Vine offers is available to the branch if it just stays connected, truly internally connected.

We, the branch, don’t have to strive. All we have to do to stay truly alive is to abide.

The Vinedresser tends to everything and works day in and day out to care perfectly for the branch.

The Vine does work, pulsating nutrients. The Vinedresser does work, cultivating and making sure every vine is in its place. The branch does not work. It remains and rests in Him. It abides.

Search throughout Holy Scripture and you’ll find this theme throughout:Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:10

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:3

Friends, in this life, you will see beauty, and you will face droughts. Both of these will be true. The only source of hope that will sustain you, the only truth you can carry that can also carry you, the only words of advice that you need to root down deep and spring forth from your heart come not from just anyone but from The One, from Jesus Christ:

“Abide in me, and I in you.”