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I was reading a daily devotion the other day and the last sentence of the day’s thoughts made me stop. “If we continue to trust and obey Him, God will help us.”

What came to mind immediately were Jesus’ Words, “I am the Vine and you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. For apart from Me, you can do nothing.” That must mean that apart from Him, trust and obedience are impossible on my own.

A branch does not have “life in itself” as its life comes from the Vine. In fact, the branch has no life flowing in it if it is not vitally, relationally and exclusively attached to the Vine.

Abiding in, making our permanent home in Jesus Christ is a work of the Holy Spirit Who unites us to both the death and resurrection-life of Jesus. The Holy Spirit puts us “into Jesus”. We are given a new heart and a new spirit, made righteous and holy by Jesus coming to live His very life in us in the Holy Spirit’s power. Our righteousness is derived from His Life within us.

If our hearts were not made holy by Him, the Holy Spirit would not dwell in us. Our bodies would not be a “temple of the Holy Spirit” for He cannot dwell in a place still saturated and stained by sin. It’s from the inside out that our lives are being transformed as He lives in us. “If anyone is IN CHRIST, they are a NEW creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things are made new. And this is the work of God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.”

The world around us does its best to try and dissuade us that our relationship to God must be at least partially the result of our human efforts. Satan and his minions lie through every possible medium that we are not “really” united to Jesus Christ. Our human frailty and penchant for relying on ourselves (the habits we have retained from our old way of being and living) seem to affirm the satanic innuendos. What you must always remember, is that the Devil is a liar and the father of lies. If he says you are not united to Christ when Jesus states clearly that you are, who are you going to believe?

 

Growing up, anyone could have jeered at me saying that I was NOT the son of Virgil B. Brown. Their saying that, even repeatedly, could never make it a fact. Being the son of Virgil B. Brown was not a feeling, it was a fact. When the Holy Spirit united us to Jesus Christ, God gave us the spirit of adoption, designating us as His heirs; joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Under Roman law, an adopted child could never be disowned. To designate an heir, a Roman citizen would hold a formal ceremony of adopting him own flesh and blood. No matter what transpired in the future (and it was a guarantee that the heir would mess up down the road) that “adopted one” could never be abandoned or forsaken.

Abiding in Christ is a given by God. Our awareness of that fact comes from His Word making its home in our hearts, emotions, will, our minds that are being renewed by that Word, and even our bodies. If you belong to Jesus, He is your home; He is life within you; the Holy Spirit is the One Who bears His fruit through you. Your fruit will look like Jesus if His life is being lived within you.

That fruit will be perfected as His salvation and reclamation of your life progresses. Having begun a good work in you, He has promised to bring that work to completion.

So, back to the beginning of my thoughts. God is the One Who enables this redeemed sinner, whom He now calls a saint and a son, to trust Him. My faith is the response of believing God simply because of Who He is, what He has said and done through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, conforming me to the Image of Jesus Christ, is the One perfecting the obedience of Jesus in me. Trusting and obeying are from the Lord, Himself, as it is written “Salvation is of the Lord alone.”

God helps me to trust and obey. He teaches me that I can trust Him. He strengthens the muscles of the faith He has given me. His help is never in response to my own paltry human efforts. He is my Help to trust, to obey, to pray, to hope, to persevere, to rely on the fact that He is my shepherd and that I am His sheep. A sheep learns to follow the Shepherd by being with Him and with others who have followed longer that I have and can testify that He is eternally faithful and nothing can separate me from His love.

Trust Him. He loves you. He will be your Help to obey and to rely on Him. His life being lived in you WILL BE lived through you. He is your Help on every level, for apart from Him, you could do nothing. Your faith depends on Him from start to finish…and finish you will because that is His will for you.



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