When Jesus says the Spirit is our Helper, He isn’t just helping us do good, He helps us want good, choose good, and grow into good. When you ask the Holy Spirit for help, what do you usually hope He will help you with, strength, wisdom, peace, or something else? When Jesus says, “without Me ye can do nothing,” He isn’t scolding, He’s describing how life flows. A branch doesn’t strain to make fruit; it just stays connected. “Fruit grows where fellowship stays. ” When you read “abide in me,” what picture comes to your mind, resting, obeying, staying close, or something else? “I rest on my knees even when it hurts, because my heart is heavy and I want to pour my heart out to God, losses, people who need healing, asking Him why I have to go through the hard stuff. “Not peaceful, not poetic, not strong, just showing up wounded and still choosing Him. A branch doesn’t cling because it feels good. It clings because it has nowhere else to live. Kneeling with a hurting heart is not weakness; it’s the deepest form of abiding. It’s saying, “I don’t understand, but I won’t walk away. ”The release of giving Him it all and asking for forgiveness if I have sinned through the day without knowledge. “that’s what abiding actually looks like. Not perfection. Not certainty. Not having the right words. Just letting go of what you carried and trusting that God receives it without hesitation.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
– John 15:5-7
"Only Life Changes" 