Mel Herring is a student at Eastern University and a permanent staff veteran. She originally posted this as a note on Facebook.
“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you…”
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation is intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant…”
“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.”
– John 15
I read this a few weeks when I was in desperate need of some quiet time with the lord. This translation is from the message, but it does sound familiar to the NIV that most people read. Reading this was conmforting for my soul. taking in the words was like taking a deep. cleansing breath. Think about these words “When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation is intimate and organic…” we were all created to be in perfect unison with the father. we are a part of him and he is a part of us. Because we are human and by no means fully reveal the glory of the lord, there is a part of us that still does; a glimmer of the father is in each one of us. When we are in sync with the father, the relationship, the bond is exactly what it was meant to be. He knows the deepest parts of us and it reflects the organic, natural way that life should be with God. It is our real selves; who we really are at our core.
I also like the way the message talks about the father’s love. it says, “make your home in my love.” Home is warm, peaceful, comforting and a place where we know that we belong. it doesn’t have to be your house, but the place where you can be exactly where you are and feel like the world makes sense. God says we can make our home in his love. He created us, he knows us. He knows what we struggle with, what our strengths are, our hopes, dreams and fears. We can rest on the peace of knowing that he knows us, and loves us in spite of ourselves.
The past few weeks have been a bit rough. School is really hitting the grindstone and I have been struggling to be the person and believer that I want to be; I have felt like I don’t look much like my heavenly father. However, me being hard on myself and depending on my own will power is useless. I can rest in the father’s grace, and know that he is not finished with me yet. I must rest on the father, or else I am doomed to a neverending cycle of failing will power and a legalistic attitude. I hope that this excourages whoever else may be struggling with the same thing, and let the hope of the father’s unending love and his strength be the thing that we find our home and our real selves in.
“I want to be the man I was meant to be
I want to be the way I was made.” -Chris Tomlin
