Remain In Me

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
John 15:4-5

"As you abide (or remain) in Christ---that is, as you spend time deepening your relationship with Him--you can expect your faith to grow." ("Bejond Jabez"-Wilkinson)

Recently, I was praying that God will bring us more friends here in Columbus. We've been here for one year, but somehow, we only have few friends and rarely see them. We do have homegroup or kinship from church but since this is our second group (we left the old one because of proximity), we just started getting to know each couple in our group. Sometimes, we are feeling discouraged...is there anything wrong with us? Or is this where God really wants us to be? Or sometimes, are we not good friends?

I have close friends in the Philippines which I came in contact only through emails and Tim's close friends are living in another state as well. I told God this is hard, yes we love each other so much, we don't want to be separated most of the time, yet we also want to make an impact to other people's lives. We also want to have friends that's close and that we could relate well. We both agreed even before we got married that we don't want to be "the married couple who doesn't have time to interact with our single friends". But right after we moved here a year ago...distance is one of the hindrance of keeping up with our single friends.

But we didn't loose heart. When Tim lost his job few months ago, some of our family & friends thought we're gonna go back to Indiana. Yet, we believe this is where God wants us...so we remained in Him.

Last night, I realized God answered our prayer---A friend of ours back in Indiana moved here in Columbus 'coz she got a teaching job in a school here. We got in contact with her because Tim helped in moving her stuffs, then we invited her for dinner in our home and went to Vineyard altogether last Sunday. Anyway, last night, we had a movie night with her again and as we conversed in all matters of our life and her life, I felt God spoke to me saying---"see, I never underestimated your feelings. I know your needs".
We may need friendship in this city, but ultimately, He wants us to bear fruit by remaining in Him. As our friend opens her heart to us and as we open our hearts to her as well, I felt how God is using us to be an encouragement to her and how God is using her as an encouragement to us.

"Many people try to be good, honest people who do what is right. But Jesus says the only way to live a truly good life is stay close to Him, like a branch attached to the vine. Apart from Christ our efforts are unfruitful."**

Yes apart from Him, I don't think we'll have the wisdom to minster to our friend.

"Are you receiving the nourishment and life offered by Christ, the vine? If not, you're missing a special gift He has for you." **



**(NIV-Life Application Study Bible)