When I was just a boy, my dear mother had
to repeat herself several times to get me to do something she wanted me to
do. It wasn’t that I was intentionally
and perpetually disobedient. Rather, I
was distracted by my own will and focused on doing what I wished to do. Some how I just didn’t hear her directive and
was slow to respond. As I got older, it
didn’t get better. As famed New York Yankees catcherYogi Berra would
say, it was "déjà vu’ all over
again." Regardless of how much
frustration I occasioned in my dear mother, and how upset she would become, she
still loved me. I was blind to the
reality that her frustration was compounded by the fact that she had five other
children very much like me: self-absorbed and focused on their own interests.
Not listening and obeying is endemic in the
human condition. It is our chief
shortfall in our relationship to God, our Father. How many times in the Scriptures do we read
of mankind’s disobedience. God makes
clear his will and desire for us. For
millennia we’ve ignored him. We just
don’t listen, or when we do hear him, we are inclined to pursue our own will
and desires. When God says follow me, we
simply go our own way. We see this
throughout the Bible and we see it today. Its déjà vu’ all over again.
The other thing we see is God’s remarkable
patience and forgiving heart. When Jesus
taught his disciples in the upper room on the eve of his crucifixion, one of
the things he said was, “Remain in me.
If a man remains in me and I remain in him, he will bear much fruit”
(John 15:4). His words were a directive
and a promise: remain and be fruitful. At the time of his arrest, instead of
remaining faithful to him as their dearest friend, they all scattered. It was “déjà
vu’, a repeat of human history. Not much has changed today. Rather than remain, we scatter our own
ways.
It doesn't have to be that way. Just the opposite took place in the Book of Acts.
On one occasion before
his ascension to the Father, Jesus directed them to remain in Jerusalem and
wait for the gift the Father promised (the Holy Spirit). This time, the gathering of 120 were obedient. They waited for ten days and God made good on his promise (Acts 2:1-4). He always does! Glory to God!
It doesn't have to be that way. Just the opposite took place in the Book of Acts.
Throughout the old and new testaments, God
requires obedience and directs his people to remain in him. In him is the best place possible for
them. He desires his people to cling to
him (Jeremiah 13:11), to continue to live in him (Colossians 2:6), and to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit
in their inner being that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith (Ephesians
3:16, 17), grasp the magnitude of his love, and be filled with the very
fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18,19). All
these scriptures echo Jesus’ words, “Remain in me . . . bear much fruit.” The sad reality is that we have such a
struggle hearing the Word of the Lord (Jeremiah 13:11 – “But they would not
listen.”) and then obeying. We then miss
out on the abundance of God’s fruit.
So, here’s the question: Are you remaining in Christ, continuing in
him, letting him dwell in you by the Holy Spirit, filled with the fullness of
God, bearing much fruit, more than you could ask or imagine, to the Glory of
God (Ephesians 3:20,21) or is it “déjà
vu’ all over again”?
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