But there's a flip side, Murray says, to the fruit-bearing process: "Without the branch the vine can also do nothing." He goes on:
A vine without branches can bear no fruit. No less indispensable than the vine to the branch, is the branch to the vine. Such is the wonderful condescension of the grace of Jesus, that just as His people are dependent on Him, He has made Himself dependent on them. Without His disciples He cannot dispense His blessing to the world.3
It's okay. I'll wait while you read that one again. (I had to.)
What Murray is saying, in a nutshell, is this:
Without the disciples — without us — God cannot provide good things for people.
That's... astounding.
God could have chosen to work around us (or even in spite of us), but He didn't. He chose to work in us and through us to bless other people. God chose us — His image bearers — to reflect His love and be the channel through which His power is unleashed in our world. And the way this works — the way we open the chute for God's power and provision — is through our prayers.
We see the link between prayer and provision played out over and over again in the Bible. God gave the barren Hannah a son, provided rain for Elijah, opened Peter's prison doors, and added fifteen years to King Hezekiah's life.4
- God moves when His people pray.
And when Jesus tells us to "ask," it's not just an invitation. It's a command:
Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father's glory, that you bear much fruit.5
When we pray, we bring glory to God. He wants us to plow the field with our prayers so that He can provide an incredible harvest.
And all I can think, as I consider how a mighty God could entrust us with such a high calling, is that it is because of how much He loves us. Not because we are clever or well-behaved or (thank goodness!) athletic, but simply because He is our Father — the Father who loves us and longs, as Jesus reminds us, to "give good gifts to those who ask Him."6
My earthly father died, way too young, from brain cancer. As I look back on his legacy — on all the ways his life left an imprint on mine — the gift I cherish the most is the introduction he gave me to Jesus. Dad came home one day when I was just eight years old and confessed that he'd had it all wrong. He had spent his life trying to earn God's approval (teaching Sunday school, working hard at his job, playing second-rate tennis with a big grin on his face) until someone told him it wasn't about being a "good guy." Being a Christian was about realizing you were not good, after all, and that you needed a Savior.
All of which made complete sense to me. Even as a child, I knew I was a sinner. The idea that God's grace could cover my failings came then, as it does now, as a major relief — and I was only too glad to (as John 1:12 puts it) receive Jesus, believe in His name, and receive the right to become a child of God.
And today, as I slip my hand into my heavenly Father's and consider the fruit He has already produced and the harvest yet to come, I am reminded of the blessing, and the privilege, that comes with being an image bearer.
I am reminded of the blessing, and the privilege, of prayer.
- Genesis 1:26, 28.
- John 15:5, 16.
- Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ (1888; repr., Apollo, PA: Ichthus, 2014), 25, http://ccbiblestudy.net/Topics/74Union/74Union-E/740101%E3%80%8AAbide%20in%20Christ%E3%80%8B(Andrew%20Murray).pdf.
- See 1 Samuel 1:10–20; James 5:17–18; Acts 12:1–19; 2 Kings 20:1–7.
- John 15:7–8.
- Matthew 7:11.
Excerpted with permission from Praying the Scriptures for Your Life by Jodie Berndt, copyright Jodie Berndt.
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