GOD’S WORD FOR MAY 18

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

     JESUS, YOU…… (YOUR) FACE SHINES UPON ME —Ps 119:135

     JESUS, YOU……(YOUR) WORDS WILL NEVER PASS AWAY —Mt 24:35

       JESUS, YOU……MADE OUR WAY TO THE THRONE OF GRACE—Heb. 4:16

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THE WORD FOR TODAY

Isaiah 27:2-3

“In that day sing to her, a vineyard of red wine!

I, the Lord, keep it;  I water it every moment;  lest any hurt it,  I keep it night and day.”

We’re beginning the chapter entitled, “Every Moment” in the book, “Abide in Christ” by Andrew Murray, a classic written during the 1800’s.

The vineyard was the symbol of the people of Israel, in whose midst the True Vine was to stand.  The branch is the symbol of the individual believer, who stands in the vine.  The song of the vineyard is also the song of the Vine and its every branch.  The command still goes forth to the watchers of the vineyard – if only they obeyed it and sang until every feeble-hearted believer had learned and joined the joyful strain –

“Sing to her…..I the Lord, keep it;  I will water it every moment;  lest any hurt it,  I keep it night and day.”

What an answer from the mouth of God Himself to the question so often asked:  Is it possible for the believer to abide always in Jesus?  Is a life of unbroken fellowship with the Son of God indeed attainable here in this earthly life?  Truly not, if abiding is our work, to be done in our strength.  But the things that are impossible with men are possible with God (Luke 18:27).  If the Lord Himself will keep the soul night and day,  yes, will watch and water it every moment, then surely the uninterrupted communion with Jesus becomes a blessed possibility to those who can trust God to mean and to do what He says.  Then, surely the abiding of the branch of the Vine day and night, summer and winter, in a never ceasing life fellowship is nothing less than the simple but certain promise of your abiding in your Lord.

In one sense, it is true, there is no believer who does not always abide in Jesus; without this there could not be true life:

“If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth” (John 15:6).  But when the Savior gives the command, “Abide in Me” (John 15:4), with the promise, “He that abides in Me….brings forth much fruit,” (John 15:5), He speaks of that willing, intelligent, and wholehearted surrender by which we accept His offer and consent to the abiding in Him as the only life we choose to seek.  There are two chief objections raised against our right to expect that we will always be able thus voluntarily and consciously to abide in Jesus.

The one is derived from the nature of man.  It is said that our limited powers prevent our being occupied with two things at the same moment.  God’s providence places many Christians in business, where for hours at a time the closest attention is required to the work they have to do.  How can such a man, it is asked, with his whole mind on the work he has to do, be at the same time occupied with Christ and keeping fellowship with Him.  The consciousness of abiding in Jesus is regarded as requiring such a strain, and such a direct occupation of the mind with heavenly thoughts, that to enjoy the blessing would imply a withdrawing of oneself from all the ordinary activities of life.  This is the same error that drove the first monks into the wilderness.

But, blessed be God, there is no necessity for such a going out of the world.   Abiding in Jesus is not a work that needs the mind to be engaged each moment, or the affections to be directly and actively occupied with it. It is an entrusting of oneself to the keeping of Eternal Love, in the faith that it will abide near us, and with its holy presence watch over us and ward off the evil, even when we have to be most intently occupied with other things.  And so the heart has rest and peace, and joy in the consciousness of being kept when it cannot keep itself.

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