Letting the Sap Flow from the Vine

I’ve been reading a book by V. Raymond Edman (President of Wheaton College from 1940-1965) about Christians who “found the secret” of abundant life in Christ. In the very varied experiences of each person profiled there seems to be one common theme. Early on they tried hard to follow Christ and become more Christ-like only to become dissatisfied and discouraged, sometimes bitterly so, by their lack of progress and a feeling of fruitlessness. Ultimately, however, each came to a deep understanding that Christ was literally living inside them and they began to rely on Him to live out His life through them. Then they found peace, joy, fruitfulness and all the promises we read about in the New Testament. J. Hudson Taylor wrote of this experience, “But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”

Expressing a similar thought, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote:

“How does the branch bear fruit? Not by incessant effort for sunshine and air; not by vain struggles for those vivifying influences which give beauty to the blossom, and verdure to the leaf: it simply abides in the vine, in silent undisturbed union, and blossoms and fruit appear as of spontaneous growth.

How, then, shall a Christian bear fruit? By efforts and struggles to obtain that which is freely given; by meditations on watchfulness, on prayer, on action, on temptation, and on dangers? No.”

But how does all this thought of letting Jesus do the work fit in with developing good spiritual habits, making sure we set aside time for prayer and Bible reading? Aren’t these examples of the kind of self-effort that ultimately discouraged people like Hudson Taylor as they fell short of their own ideals? How does this idea fit in with Paul’s teaching that we should be alert, train ourselves spiritually, pray diligently and study to show ourselves approved unto God?

I think there is a clue in a comment of Hudson Taylor’s, “How great seemed my mistake in having wished to get the sap, the fullness out of Him.” If we go about prayer, reading our Bibles, and filling ourselves with good teaching with an attitude that we are collecting resources with which we will construct a Christ-like character in ourselves, we will fail. Our spiritual disciplines will seem like drudgery and begin to feel completely pointless as we see only a little change in ourselves. However, if our attitude is that prayer, Bible reading and time with God are not sap sucking but rather the ways we can make sure that the branch is still attached to the vine so that the sap can flow freely, we will be relying on Him to do His work in us. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote about Christians who have learned this truth: “Their hope and trust rest solely on what He is willing and able to do for them; on nothing that they suppose themselves able and willing to do for Him.”

This month, as you pursue your daily habits of prayer, Bible reading and stretches of quiet time in which you can think and hear God speak, try to do it with a sense of openness, a sense that you are opening up an airwave through which God will communicate with you and change you--rather than a sense that you are checking off items on a builder's punch list that will result in a new and better you. Take the pressure off yourself to do all these things "the right way." Just show up and start to do them, asking God to take control of the results.