Written by John Bloom from DesiringGod.org
One of the most merciful gifts God can give us is a deep, keen awareness of our dependence on him for everything.
Living the Christian life relies on our full dependence upon the grace of God we receive through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said it this way:
“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.” (John 15:5)
Every professing Christian agrees we must abide in Christ. But our agreement is only important to the degree we feel it to be true. The less we feel our need for Christ, the less we will abide in him.
If We Don’t Feel Hungry, We Won’t Eat
I say “feel” because in English this gets closer to the kind of knowledge of our need for Jesus he means us to have. It’s not merely cerebral but experiential knowledge, like knowing we need food.
But it’s one thing to know we need nutrients for our body when we haven’t eaten in 24 hours; it’s another thing to know we need nutrients for our body after we’ve just washed down a bag of potato chips with a 32 oz. soda. We’re not likely to eat food we really need after sating our appetite with junk. If we don’t feel hungry, we won’t eat, especially the kind of food we most need.
The same thing is true of spiritual nutrition. If we don’t feel hunger for God because we’ve been eating spiritual junk, we are not likely to want to eat the food we need most — the food from the Vine.
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