Daily Devotional: Thursday, April 23, 2020
SCRIPTURE READING
Scripture: John 15:6a (KJV) If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
If you looked out the window, you might be able to see branches on the grass that did not abide in their tree. In the snow and rain and wind, they fell off the tree and are now lying on the grass.
Maybe your Daddy or Mommy has asked you to pick up dead branches? At our house, sometimes we collect dead branches and put them in a pile and make a fire with them and roast marshmallows on the fire.
Every vine has branches that don’t abide, that don’t stay connected to it.
If we are the branch and Jesus is the tree we are attached to, is it easy to stay connected to Him? Is it easy to abide in Jesus?
No, it’s not easy to abide in Jesus. Just like branches of trees go through storms of rain and wind, people go through storms, also. We lose our job. We have an accident. Someone we love dies. We get sick.
These things are very hard for us, aren’t they?
Do you know what?
Sometimes a man who used to talk about how much he loved Jesus and His Church goes through a storm and turns away from Jesus. This happens all the time. We watch people turn their backs on Jesus because they are bitter at Him. As they leave Jesus behind, they leave His Church behind. When a man turns his back on Jesus, He is not abiding in Jesus.
Jesus here warns us that if we do not abide in Him, we will be thrown away and dry up.
We all know Daddies and Mommies who have cut themselves off from Jesus and His Church. Jesus warns that when they turn away from Him, they are thrown away and they dry up. Your Daddy and Mommy have cried when people they love do this; when people they love turn their backs on Jesus.
Jesus here warns us not to do this by telling what will happen if we do:
Scripture: John 15:6a (KJV) If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
QUESTIONS
- What makes branches fall off trees?
- What makes people turn away from Jesus?
- What happens to people who turn away from Jesus?
SONG OF THE WEEK
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Father, when the storms of life are raging, may Jesus be an anchor to hold me fast. When I am suffering and in pain, may Jesus be a healer to bind up my wounds. When I am troubled and afraid, may Jesus be my shepherd to lead and to guide. When I face disappointments of any kind, as a child of Adam I know that I must, and am tempted by bitterness or doubt to fall from You, may I hear You reminding me that I am not my own but was bought with a price, that I am no orphan but a child of a King Who orders all things for my everlasting good. Hearing these truths, may I humbly repent and with quietness of spirit return to You. Amen.
SCRIPTURE MEMORY THIS WEEK
John 15:3-4 (KJV)
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
