You Can Do Nothing

4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. John 15

Last night I once again had a recurring dream. I am back in the Navy and having to pack out my locker. I guess I am being transferred or discharged. In addition to my uniforms, the locker is full of purchases that seemed wise and valuable when acquired, but are now obviously junk: things like cameras and radios that no longer work, things that seemed like a good idea at the time.

I don’t think we really believe that without Christ we can do nothing. In fact, I think we believe that we can do most things. It’s just the occasional challenge that requires His help. It’s thinking like that which leaves us with a locker full of stuff we don’t need. We need Christ for anything that is going to have any lasting, eternal significance. Frankly, nothing else matters.

Check out  your own locker, your treasure chest of accomplishments. What can you take with you? What really means something? I can assure you only the things you have done in Christ will last. You can toss everything else in the fire. The really sad thing isn’t that we have accumulated much that doesn’t matter; it’s that we have failed to store up much that does.

Today, let Christ do something through you that matters. Let Him create something that matters and that will last forever. Every thing else  you do today will burn away.