Remain

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15:4

Blessed Father, I pray that the Deeper Still Ministry would abide and remain in you.  Lord, I pray that Deeper Still would stay connected to Your life giving vine, bearing much fruit for Your Kingdom. Amen.

Remain.

 

Remain: To stay in the same place or with the same person or group; to stay after others have gone (Merriam –Webster)

My friend, Lelia, shared on Facebook this week how she desired a permanent reminder to keep her eyes on Jesus.  Just this week, she had the word “Remain” tattooed on her wrist with John 15: 4-7 as her inspiration.   I asked if I could share part of her story.  With her permission, Lelia is post-abortive.

 

John 15:4-7 has been an area of struggle for my friend.  She loves Jesus with her whole heart and Jesus has brought beautiful redemption in her life. 

Below is what Lelia shared after having the word REMAIN engraved on her wrist:

“Standing in my kitchen looking at it, I didn't just see a tattoo, I saw how much time I've wasted trying to do life my way and I just lost it. The tears and praise came as I realized more than anything else on this earth I want God the most. I do. I'm sick of myself. I'm sick of the self-sabatoger in me. I want to remain in Jesus. “

Regardless of how you feel about tattoos, this isn’t about tattoos.  It is about men and women running after God with a whole and healthy heart.  It is about giving the Lord total access to every part of our lives, cleaning out the dead and allowing His new life to flow through every fiber of our being. 

It is about us dying to ourselves and abiding solely in His love.  It is about staying with the person of Jesus Christ, being one with Him and remaining in Him. 

Freedom only comes when we reach the end of ourselves and realize we are nothing.  Remaining is truly what leads to liberty.

Remain. 

 

Perseverance

“Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:4 

Father, we pray for faith to rise up in the hearts of the leaders in the new and budding chapters of Deeper Still.  We pray You would give them the strength and increase their faith to persevere to finish the good work you have called them to do.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

You are probably familiar with the story of the 12 spies who went into the promised land to size up the land and report back to Moses (Numbers 13:2-14:10).

And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out saying,  “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.  There we saw the giants and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight; and so we were in their sight.”  Numbers 13:32-33

I was listening to a Pastor recently who pointed out that Moses never asked the spies to size up themselves.  He only asked them to size up the land. 

When we begin sizing up ourselves against what God has called us to do, we will always size up ourselves on the measuring stick of doubt. 

God doesn’t ask us to measure ourselves. God sizes Himself up and He never comes up short.

What happens when we size up ourselves is that we size up the situation according to our weaknesses instead of focusing on the GREATNESS of our GOD. 

This faulty focus is where the ten spies failed.  Only two spies came back with a good report, Joshua and Caleb.

Caleb said, “ Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” Numbers 13:30

Joshua said, “…And the Lord is with us.  Do not fear them.”

Sadly, as we  know, the Israelites didn’t listen to Caleb and Joshua.  Instead, they shrunk back in fear and never entered the land God intended for them to enter and conquer. 

God said, “BUT, My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him, and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land where he went and his descendants shall inherit it.” Numbers 14:24 

Caleb and Joshua had a different spirit…a spirit of faith instead of fear. 

Caleb and Joshua persevered in their faith and the Lord gave Joshua the honor of leading God’s people into the promised land.   There were still giants to face.  The obstacles were still the same.  However, Joshua’s faith lent him the accurate perspective that God was bigger than any  obstacle. 

Joshua persevered in his faith, and won the battle.   However, the battle was never Joshua’s and he knew that truth.  That truth was how he had the faith to enter the land in the first place.  The battle was always the Lord’s.  And we all know how that story ends.  It ends in victory. 

Our story ends in victory also.  Whatever giants may be in the land, whatever battle you may be facing, God already has the story written and He never writes a bad ending.  “Go up at once and overtake the land, for [you] are well able to overcome!”