“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
Dear Friends,
Most of us enjoy spending time with people we love. But even with those who are the most fun and easy to get along with, it’s possible to spend too much time together. At some point, enough is enough and we need some time to ourselves, to be alone, to regroup and recharge our emotional batteries.
While that is true on the horizontal level, when it comes to our vertical relationship with God, it’s not! God wants us to be in personal, intimate fellowship with Him all the time, and He has made that possible through Jesus. Through Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension into heaven and sending of His Spirit to indwell believers, it is truly attainable for Christians to experience 4 C’s – Continuous, Conscious Communion with Christ.
Now just because that is possible, certainly doesn’t mean it’s easily attainable or very likely that we’ll ever achieve a state of 100% unbroken fellowship with Jesus while on this earth. There will probably always be a gap between our goal of 100%, and the reality which is much, much lower.
Think about it. What percentage of time in your average day do you spend in constant communion with Christ? Praying to Him, talking with Him, depending on Him, conscious of His presence? 5%? 10%? And if that’s the reality, what can we do to change it?
First, acknowledge the Goal – Continuous Conscious Communion with Christ. Abiding in Him with Him and His Word abiding in me.
Next, admit the Gap. Be honest about how much of my awake time is spent actually abiding in Him.
Finally, discipline myself to pray more, pray sooner, pray longer, pray harder and pray deeper.
The only way to cultivate new behavior and thought patterns is to, with God’s help, practice abiding more until we see that Gap become smaller and smaller.
Disciple of Jesus, please join me in this pursuit! How much more fruitful, and happy, we will be!
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Tim Sir
