Most of us have devices we have to recharge: a cell phone, a smart watch, iPads, earbuds, electronic cars, etc. Packing lists for travel include cords and cables for charging. We seek outlets in airport terminals to charge up until our next flight. The threat of storms and power outages causes us to make sure all our devices are charged just in case.

Some of this technological language has filtered into other areas of life. We talk of rest and rejuvenation as needing to recharge our batteries. We say we need to “plug into” some community or power source.

Some might even think of their time in the Bible and prayer as a spiritual recharge. But Joni Eareckson Tada challenges that thought in her devotional book, Spectacle of Glory. In the reading for November 4, she writes that we don’t “sit down for our quiet time and ask ourselves, How long do I have to be plugged into God today to get a good spiritual charge?” She expands that thought by saying:

We don’t get charged up in God in order to unplug and live on our own–until it’s time for the next charge. No. We never disconnect from Him. We are living branches connected to the living Christ. His life is our life.

Instead of plugging in, we abide in Him, as Jesus said in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

In one of the best definitions for abiding that I have read, Joni says:

Abiding is living in constant awareness of total dependence on Jesus. It involves a constant flow of life-giving sap from the Holy Spirit–not a spiritual charge that takes us up to 80 percent. Abiding in Christ is a 100 percent relationship.

We’re placed in Christ when we believe on Him, and that connection is never severed. But we don’t always consciously think about depending on Jesus.

How do we cultivate that awareness of our dependence on Him? Well, trying to do anything in our own strength will often cause us to fall flat, reminding us we need His strength.

Jesus goes on in John 15 to talk about prayer and His words abiding in us. We don’t confine prayer and Bible reading to our devotional time and then go off on our own. Psalm 1 talks about meditating on God’s instruction day and night. Isaiah 26:3 says “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” We can talk with Him all through the day. We think about His Word as we make decisions and go about our work, asking Him for help and wisdom in knowing how to apply what He has said.

Then we demonstrate our love to Him by obeying His Word. It’s not that we keep His commandments to try to earn His love. We come to Him for salvation because we can’t keep all His commandments all the time. But when He saves us, we value what He says and we seek His strength to obey Him because we love Him.

Once we believe on Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we’re a branch connected to His vine. His life flows through us. He doesn’t charge us up and then send us off to live independently til we need another charge. We don’t have to worry about becoming disconnected to Him. He’s always with us, constantly empowering us to live for Him. But we abide in Him when we lean into that relationship and depend on Him.

Jesus saying that we can do nothing without Him reminds me of these stanzas from Frances Ridley Havergal’s lovely hymn, “I Could Not Do Without Thee“

I could not do without thee,
O Saviour of the lost,
whose precious blood redeemed me
at such tremendous cost;
thy righteousness, thy pardon,
thy precious blood, must be
my only hope and comfort,
my glory and my plea.

I could not do without thee,
I cannot stand alone,
I have no strength or goodness,
no wisdom of my own;
but thou, belovèd Saviour,
art all in all to me,
and weakness will be power
if leaning hard on thee.

May He teach us all to abide more consciously and fully in Him.

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