Remain

When I was a Youth Worker, I taught John 15, Isaiah 55 and the book of Romans on repeat. Not so much that the kids needed to hear it, but because I needed to hear it.

There is something steadying about the words of Jesus in that chapter. He does not begin with a list of things we must accomplish. He begins with a relationship. A branch does not strain to produce fruit. It simply stays connected to the vine. Life flows from the vine into the branch, and fruit follows naturally.

For many of us, the Christian life becomes exhausting because we try to reverse that order. We attempt to produce the fruit first – patience, strength, holiness, endurance – while forgetting the quiet source from which those things grow. We work, we strive, and we worry that we are not doing enough. Yet Jesus keeps bringing us back to the same simple invitation: remain in Me.

Remaining is not dramatic. It is often very ordinary. It is opening the Scriptures when the day begins. It is speaking honestly to the Lord in prayer. It is turning our thoughts back to Him when the mind begins to wander. It is remembering, again and again, that we were never meant to live this life apart from Him.

And something beautiful happens when we do. Temptation begins to lose its grip. Fear loosens its hold. Even the restless noise of the world grows quieter. Not because our circumstances suddenly change, but because we are drawing life from the One who never changes.

The branch does not survive by visiting the vine occasionally. It lives because it remains.

I hope that anyone who reads this will be encouraged – that they will desire to “Remain!”

Because that chapter has always meant so much to me, I created two videos, a text version and a narrated version. Both based on John 15:4.

Remain (Narrated Version)