Remaining in Christنموونە

Day 3 Devotional:

The Methods that Strengthen Remaining in Christ

In this passage, Christ helps us to see the three methods that strengthen our remaining in Him.

The first method is in verse 3 where Christ tells the disciples that they are clean because of the word He had spoken to them. In verses 7, 10, verses 14 and 15 Christ talks about His words remaining in us, and our obeying of His Word. These verses teach us that the first method that strengthens our remaining in Christ is that we take the Word of God seriously, and we develop a determination to obey the Word of God in the strength of the Holy Spirit.

The second method is in verses 10, 12, 13, and 17. In these verses, Christ explains that the second method that strengthens our remaining in Him is our deliberate love for one another that unites us together as His disciples. The original Greek word for love that Christ uses in these verses literally means to practice loving one another. Practice refers to concrete action, not mere emotions or words.

So, here Christ is saying that we are to love one another in very practical ways such as by being kind to each other, by being generous to each other, by being patient with each other, by being gentle with each other, by forgiving each other, and so on. Christ demonstrated this kind of love for us by dying on the cross for us (verse 13).

The third method is in verses 7 and 16. Here, Christ explains that the third method that strengthens our remaining in Him is a strong personal habit of prayer. Real prayer is a dialogue in which we regularly speak to, and we listen to the Lord because we cannot develop any meaningful relationship with the Lord, or with anyone else, unless we frequently talk to them and we also listen to them.

So, this third method, which entails our strong habits of personal prayer, enable us to develop a meaningful and living relationship with the Lord that strengthens our remaining in Him, as we grow in our faith in Him and our obedience to Him.

So, we can summarise our second M by saying that the three methods, or spiritual disciplines, that strengthen our remaining in Christ are, staying in the Word of God, loving one another, and developing committed habits of personal devotional prayer.