Abide In Christ
by Andrew Murray
Day 19
In Affliction and
Trial
“...Every
branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit”
(John 15:2)
In
the whole plant world, there is not a plant to be found so especially
suited to be the image of man in his relation to God as the
grapevine. There is none which the fruit and its juice are so full of
spirit, so quickening and stimulating. But there is also none which
the natural tendency is so entirely evil — none where the growth is
so ready to run into wood that is utterly worthless except for the
fire. Of all plants, not one needs the pruning knife so unsparingly
and so unceasingly. None is so dependent on cultivation and training,
but with this none yields a richer reward to the gardener. In His
wonderful parable, the Savior, with a single word, refers to this
need of pruning in the vine, and the blessing it brings. But from
that single word what streams of light pour in upon this dark world,
so full of suffering and sorrow to believers! What treasures of
teaching and comfort to the bleeding branch in its hour of trial:
"Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear
more fruit." And so He has prepared His people, who are so ready
when trial comes to be shaken in their confidence and to be moved
from their abiding in Christ, to hear in each affliction the voice of
a messenger that comes to call them to abide still more closely. Yes,
believer, most especially in times of trial, abide in Christ.
Abide
in Christ! This is indeed the Father's object in sending the trial.
In a storm, the tree strikes deeper roots into the soil. In a
hurricane, the inhabitants of the house abide within, and rejoice in
its shelter. So by suffering the Father would lead us to enter more
deeply into the love of Christ. Our hearts are continually prone to
wander from Him; prosperity and enjoyment all too easily satisfy us,
dull our spiritual perception, and make us unfit for full communion
with Himself. It is an unspeakable mercy that the Father comes with
His chastisement, makes the world around us all dark and
unattractive, leads us to feel more deeply our sinfulness, and for a
time lose our joy in what was becoming so dangerous. He does it in
the hope that, when we have found our rest in Christ in time of
trouble, we shall learn to choose abiding in Him as our only portion
- and when the affliction is removed, to have so grown more firmly
into Him, that in prosperity He still shall be our only joy. So much
has He set His heart on this, that though He has indeed no pleasure
in afflicting us, He will not keep back even the most painful
chastisement if He can only guide His beloved child to come home and
abide in the beloved Son. Christian! Pray for grace to see in every
trouble, small or great, the Father's finger pointing to Jesus, and
saying, “Abide in Him.”
Abide
in Christ. So will you become partaker of all the rich blessings God
designed for you in the affliction. The purposes of God's wisdom will
become clear to you, your assurance in the unchangeable love become
stronger, and the power of His Spirit fulfill in you the promise: "He
(chastens us)...for our profit, that we might be partakers of His
holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). Abide in Christ, and your cross becomes
the means of fellowship with His cross. As well, it becomes access
into its mysteries — the mystery of the curse which He bore for
you, the mystery of the death to sin in which you partake with Him,
and the mystery of the love in which, as sympathizing High Priest, He
descended into all you sorrows.
Abide
in Christ...as you are growing in conformity to your blessed Lord in
His sufferings, deeper experience of the reality and the tenderness
of His love will be yours. Abide in Christ...in the fiery oven, one
like the Son of man will be seen as never before. There the purging
away of the dross and the refining of the gold will be accomplished,
and Christ's own likeness will be reflected in you. O abide in
Christ...the power of the flesh will be put to death and the
impatience and self-will of the old nature will be humbled, so that
there might now be a place for the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
A believer may pass through much affliction and yet obtain little
blessing from it all. Abiding in Christ is the secret to obtaining
all that the Father meant the chastisement to bring us.
Abide
in Christ...in Him you shall find sure and abundant consolation. With
the afflicted, comfort often comes first, and then the profit which
comes from the affliction second. The Father loves us so much, that
with Him our real and abiding profit is His first object, but He does
not forget to comfort too. When He comforts, it is so that He may
turn the bleeding heart to Himself to receive the blessing in
fellowship with Him. When He refuses to give comfort, His object is
still the same. It is in making us partakers of His holiness that
true comfort comes. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, not only
because He can suggest comforting thoughts of God's love, but far
more, because He makes us holy, and brings us into close union with
Christ and with God. He teaches us to abide in Christ...and because
God is found there, the truest comfort will come there too. In
Christ, the heart of the Father is revealed, and higher comfort there
CANNOT BE than to rest in the Father's bosom. In Him the fullness of
the Divine love is revealed, combined with the tenderness of a
mother's compassion...and what can comfort like this? In Him you see
a thousand times more given you than you have lost. See how God only
took from you that you might have room to take from Him what is so
much better? In Him suffering is consecrated and becomes the
foretaste of eternal glory. In suffering it is so that the Spirit of
God and of glory rests on us. Believer! Would you have comfort in
affliction? Then abide in Christ.
Abide
in Christ...so will you bear much fruit. Not a vine is planted except
the owner thinks of the fruit, and the fruit only. Other trees may be
planted for ornament, for shade, for wood - the grapevine only for
the fruit. And of each vine the gardener is continually asking how it
can bring forth more fruit...much fruit. Believer! Abide in Christ in
times of affliction, and you shall bring forth more fruit. The deeper
experience of Christ's tenderness and the Father's love will urge you
to live for His glory. The surrender of self and self-will in
suffering will prepare you to sympathize with the misery of others,
while the softening that comes from chastisement will fit you for
becoming, as Jesus was, the servant of all. The thought of the
Father's desire for fruit in the pruning will lead you to yield
yourself afresh, and more than ever, to Him, and to say that now you
have only one object in life. That object is making known and
conveying His wonderful love to fellow men and women. You shall learn
the blessed art of forgetting self, and, even in affliction, availing
yourself of your separation from ordinary life to plead for the
welfare of others. Dear Christian, in affliction abide in Christ.
When you see it coming, meet it in Christ. When it comes, feel that
you are more in Christ than in it, for He is nearer you than
affliction ever can be. When it is passing, still abide in Him. And
let the one thought of the Savior, as He speaks of the pruning, and
the one desire of the Father, as He does the pruning, be yours too.
"Every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more
fruit."
So
shall your times of affliction become your times of choicest
blessing. You will find these times to be preparation for richest
fruitfulness, as you are led into closer fellowship with the Son of
God, and deeper experience of His love and grace. Then you will be
established in the blessed confidence that He and you entirely belong
to each other, and more completely satisfied with Him and more wholly
given up to Him than ever before...with your own will crucified
afresh, and your heart brought into deeper harmony with God's will.
Then you will be a vessel cleansed, ready for the Master's use,
prepared for every good work. True believer! O try to learn the
blessed truth, that in affliction your first, your only, your blessed
calling is to abide in Christ. Be much with Him alone. Beware of the
comfort and the distractions which friends so often bring. Let Jesus
Christ Himself be your chief companion and comforter. Delight
yourself in the assurance that closer union with Him, and more
abundant fruit through Him, are sure to be the results of trial,
because it is the Gardener Himself who is pruning. He will ensure the
fulfillment of the desire of the soul which yields itself lovingly to
His work.
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