Monday Night Devotional (3/17)

Remain In Jesus and He Will Remain In You

John 15:3–6 NLT

You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. This is the word of the Lord.

Jesus says to remain in him, and in return, he will remain in us. So how do we remain in him? Paul answered this question in Galatians 5:24 when he says, “those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there”. We remain in Christ by giving all of our sin to Jesus, and when we do that, he will throw that junk out, he will prune and purify us.

When we keep doing the wrong things, the more pruning that has to be done because the more dead branches we acquire, but it will only be pruned if we remain in Jesus.

When we give into the temptation of believing the LIES that “we should be ashamed of ourselves for sinning, that we should run away from God, and that we shouldn’t ask for forgiveness”, we start to think it’s okay to sin, that we’re too far deep, that God can’t save us. These are lies that Satan tempts us to believe. That’s why it’s important to do what Jesus did. Every temptation Satan threw at him in Luke 4, he used Scripture to deny it, to prove that doing what Satan was tempting him to do was against scriptures. So just like Jesus, we can go to Scripture, and we can go to Matthew 11:28, where Jesus himself says, “come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest”.

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Satan wants us to think, “Jesus doesn’t want us after we’ve sinned”. Paul says, in Romans 5:8, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. We Christians know this, but even after knowing this, we give into temptations of believing the lies of Satan, and we need constant reminders. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan’s going to try to steal what we already know by making us forget, especially when we need to hear it the most.

Jesus will redeem us. He will forgive us. That’s why he died for us. We just have to be sorry for sinning against him.

We can say we’re sorry, but to actually be sorry for our sins… we have to actually make an effort to crucify our sinful passions and sinful desires. Hebrews 10:26 says,

“Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.”

If we say sorry to God for committing sin, but we consciously and intentionally continue doing the sin we were saying sorry for, are we really sorry? Of course not. Being sorry for our sins, means to turn from our sin. In Psalm 40:2, we know that God can lift us out of the desolate pit, the pit of the despair. God will pick us back out, but we have to deny the temptation that Satan throws at us saying that “we aren’t worth, we messed up, we can’t be forgiven.” We have to deny all those temptations that make us think those hateful words, and we have to go to Jesus in open arms and he will forgive us.

Jesus says, “apart from me you can do NOTHING”. We need Jesus to overcome our sins, to prune and purify us. We need to remain in Jesus’ Hands, because his Hands are the only Hands that can and will prune us, and will purify us us, and make us godly.

Let’s pray.

Pray

Dear Heavenly Father, I lift all of us up to you. Even if we feel like we’re too far down, I pray we will allow Your hands to pick us back out because that’s what You’re waiting to do, and I pray we will remain in your hands so you can make us fruitful by pruning and purify us, Father God. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, Father God, in Jesus’ Mighty Name I pray, Amen.