remain

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love." John 15:9

 

I am learning what it means to wait.  Not the “sitting in the driveway hoping my grade twelve daughter will finally appear so we can leave for school” kind of waiting, though believe me, I am getting quite experienced at that.  I am learning to wait on God, and in the waiting, to remain. 

I am waiting on answers to brave prayers and holding onto hope in the not-yet.  (see blog: “waiting”).  God is at work in this place.  He is at work in yours.  He uses the waiting to develop in us a Christ-centered heart, a fruitful life, and a steadfast spirit. 

I find in the words of Jesus, the call to remain.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.  Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.  But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.  John 15: 4-8

I am a goal-oriented girl.  I like getting to a destination the most efficient way.  I like completing a task, being a finisher.  So I read this passage and immediately start taking inventory – how am I doing at bearing fruit?  How is my patience, my kindness, my self-control? I jump right to the goal and miss all the beauty of the process.  And, I take on a job that is not mine to do.  

My call is to cling to Christ.  It is the work of the Spirit to produce fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). I do not need to have everything figured out, to know what the future holds or the most efficient way to get there.  I simply need to stay attached to the One who does, to remain in Him.  

Max Lucado puts it this way:  “You long for the fruit of the Spirit.  But how do you bear this fruit? Try harder? No, hang tighter.  Our assignment is not fruitfulness but faithfulness”  (Anxious for Nothing).

Our fruit bearing brings glory to God, yet the way to the Spirit-filled life is not through effort, but through grace.  It is this grace that reaches us and tends our weary hearts while we wait.

It is our closeness to Jesus, the 'hanging on' that also develops in us a steadfast spirit.  Steadfast is defined as 'resolutely firm, constant, unwavering'.  These are the qualities born in us and strengthened in us as we remain.  We learn to define our days not by our circumstances but by the unchanging character of God. 

If you find yourself in a hard place today, weary from pressing on but seeing few results, waiting on an answer to your own brave prayer, my encouragement to you:  Stay steadfast. This is a holy place, this winter, this waiting.  Spring will come. There will be new growth, and then for certain, there will be a harvest. 

Hold on tight, friend.  Remain.