Without Me You Can Do Nothing

Living in constant union with Christ means doing all things for His glory, recognizing His presence in both spiritual and everyday tasks. Without Christ, we can do nothing.

True divine union involves relying on Him for strength, transforming even mundane actions into acts of worship and bringing peace and rest.

About The Life Of Divine Union In its practical Aspects. Not long ago, I was driving with a preacher from the Religious Society of Friends through our lovely Philadelphia Park. Our talk turned to the fruitlessness of much modern church preaching. We had, of course, discussed the lack of the Holy Ghost. But, we felt it did not explain everything. We both knew many Spirit- baptized preachers who had no fruit from their ministry. I suggested that one reason might be this.

Many ministers, when preaching or discussing religion, adopt a different tone and manner. This style removes religion from ordinary life. It fails to reach the hearts of those who live for simple pleasures and duties.

"Now, for instance," I said. "If, in your preaching from the Friends' gallery, you could use the same tone and manner as you present one, how much more effectual and convincing your preaching would be." "Oh, but I could not do that," was the reply. "The preacher's gallery is so much more solemn a place than this." "But why is it more solemn?"” I asked. "Is it not God's presence that makes the gallery and pulpit solemn? And, is it not here as well?" "Is it not just as solemn to live our daily lives as it is to preach? Should we not do the one to His glory as much as the other? I then added, as the subject opened before me, "I believe a large part of the difficulty lies in the unscriptural and unnatural divorce between our so-called religious life and our so-called temporal life. It's as if our religion were separate from us. It's a garment to put on and off as we wish.

On Sundays, and in church, we seek and worship God. So, we must show our religious life in a solemn way. But, our strained gravity and decorum deprive it of half its power. But on Mondays, we seek our own interests. So, we shed our work life and, with relief, live it. This is more natural and powerful.

The thoughts that started remained with me and gathered strength. Soon after, I attended a meeting.

The leader read John 15:5. The words, "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," amazed me.

I had read those words hundreds of times. I thought I understood them. But now, they seemed newly inserted in the Bible. They were ablaze with wondrous meaning.

"There it is," I said to myself. Jesus himself said so. Apart from Him, we have no real life, whether temporal or spiritual. Therefore, all living or doing without Him is 'nothing,' as God, who sees all, calls it. Then, I wondered if anyone truly believed this. If they did, did they apply it in their daily lives? In an instant, I saw that the secret of divine union lay in its practical side as much as in any inner revelations. If I do nothing, literally nothing, apart from Christ, I am, of course, united to Him in a continual, unquestionable oneness. But if I live and work apart from Him, I have no real union, no matter how exalted my emotions about it may be.

It is to consider this aspect of the subject, therefore, that the present paper is written. I am sure that the wide divorce I spoke of, between things spiritual and things temporal, has done more than almost anything else to hinder a true union with God. It has made religion seem so outside of common life that it is almost unattainable to most people. It has made the experience of Christians stiff and unnatural. It seems to shut them out from the free, happy, childlike ease that belongs to the children of God.

I feel, therefore, that it is of vital importance for us to understand the truth of this matter. The thought that makes it clearest to me is this: our oneness with Christ contains the whole thing in a nutshell. If we are one with Him, then of course, in the very nature of things, we can do nothing without Him. For that which is one cannot act as being two. If I do anything without Christ, then I am not one with Him in that thing. Like a branch severed from the vine, I am withered and worthless. The branch should know it depends on the vine for its growth, fruit, and climbing. But it might feel it could grow and climb over a fence or around a tree. So, it might sever its connection with the vine for that part of its life.

Of course that which sought an independent life would wither and die in the very nature of things.

And just so is it with us who are branches of Christ the true vine. We can do nothing, great or small, without withering and death. The same is true for a branch of the natural vine. It will show us, at once, how fatal is the divorce I have spoken of, to the oneness with Christ, for which our souls hunger. We all know, more or less, that we cannot live our religious life without Him. But, in our socalled temporal life, who thinks our daily tasks should be done for Christ? Tasks like keeping house, doing business, making calls, darning stockings, sweeping, trimming a bonnet, or entertaining guests.

Only those who abide in Him and do them in His strength can do them rightly.

If it is Christ in the Christian leading the prayer meeting, then they are one. So, it must also be Christ in the Christian who is to keep the house and make the bargain. So, one duty is as religious as the other.

It is the man that makes the action, not the action the man.

If we "acknowledge God in all our ways," we will make our daily life as solemn and sweet as our religious occasions. We should do everything, even eating and drinking, for His glory.

If our religion is truly our life, it must be in everything we do. No act, however human or natural, can escape its control and guidance. If God is always with us, He is with us in our business and social times as much as in our religious times. His presence is as solemn in one moment as in another.

If we for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘for we are indeed his offspring " (Acts 17:28), then we can do nothing without Him, whether we know it or not. And facts are stubborn things, thank God, and do not alter for all our feelings. In Psalm 127:1- 2 ‘’unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. ” We have a very striking illustration of this truth. The Psalmist says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes in vain." It is vain for you to rise early, to sit up late, and to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.” The two things, done in vain unle ss the Lord is in them, are purely secular. They are simple business matters on the human plane of life. The lesson is only impressive for this: It proved God's presence in temporal things. Those were undeniable facts.

In truth, the Bible is full of this fact, and the only wonder is how any believer in the Bible could have overlooked it. God is present in all daily life, from building cities to counting hairs and noting a sparrow's fall. He is the mainspring of it all. In all we do, even eating and drinking, we must do it for Him and His glory. We are urged to live and walk in the light, so our works, both temporal and spiritual, show they are "wrought in God."

This brings unspeakable comfort to every loving Christian heart. It turns all of life into a sacrament. It makes the kitchen, workshop, nursery, and parlor as sacred a place of service to the Lord as the prayer meeting, mission board, or charity visit.

A dear young Christian mother and housekeeper came to me, sorely grieved, because of her busy, worldly life. “There seems,” she said, “to be nothing spiritual about my life from one week’s end to the other. My large family of little children is so engrossing that I have no time for anything but attending to them and my household duties. Each night, I go to bed sick at heart. I have felt separated from my Lord all day and could do nothing for Him.” I told her what I wrote above. I assured her that all would change if she would see and acknowledge God in these homely duties. She must recognize her total dependence on Him to do them.

Her heart welcomed the good news with gladness. Months later, she told me that, from then on, life had become a transformed and glorified thing. It was now filled with the Lord's presence and the sweetness of serving Him.

Another Christian, a young lady from a fashionable family, came to me. She was in grief. Much of her life, she felt separated from God and sensed no presence of Him. I told her to avoid anything that could cause such a separation. But she assured me it was impossible. The things she meant were not wrong.

“For instance,” she said, “it is my duty to visit my mother. Yet, nothing separates me so much from God as visits” “But how would it be,” I asked, “if you visited as service to the Lord and for His glory?” “What!” she exclaimed, “visits for God? I never heard of such a thing.” “But why not?” I asked, "If it is right to make visits at all, it ought to be done for God. We are commanded to do all for His glory. If it is not right, you ought not to do it." As a Christian,” I continued, “you must not do anything that you cannot do for Him.” “I see! I see!” she exclaimed, after a little pause, “and it makes all life look so different!

“Nothing can separate me from Him but sin. But, any act done to His glory will draw me closer and make His presence more real.”

These two instances will illustrate my meaning. I'm sure thousands of weary souls would be transformed if they realized and acted on these truths. An old spiritual writer says, to become a saint, we need not change our works. We must only aim them at God. We must do them for His glory, in His strength. Before, we did them for ourselves, with our own power. This means what our Lord meant when He said, "Without me you can do nothing."

There is another side to this truth. It is comforting. The Psalmist develops it in the verses I quoted. “It is vain,” he says, “to rise early, to sit up late, and to eat the bread of sorrows.” Or, in other words, “What is the use of all this worry and strain? “W ork will amount to nothing unless God is in it. If he is, what folly to fret or be burdened? "His presence means He assumes care and responsibility for it all." Ah, it is vain indeed, and I wish all of God's children knew it! We mothers ought to know it. "Our ways with our children would teach us, if we had the 'eyes to see.' How many mothers have risen early, sat up late, and eaten the bread of sorrows, just to give sleep to their beloved children?"

And how grieved their hearts would have been if, after all their pains, the children had refused to rest.

I can appeal to some mother hearts, I am sure, as thoroughly understanding my meaning. Memories will arise of the rosy boy coming in at night, tired from play. His knees were out, and his coat was torn.

We stayed up late and rose early to patch it all. We wanted the cause of all the mischief to rest undisturbed in happy childhood sleep.

How vain, and worse, would it have been for that beloved darling to have sat up late, risen early, and eaten the bread of sorrows? His mother was doing it for him just so he wouldn't have to. If this is true of mothers, it must be more so of their Maker. He came among us in bodily form to bear our burdens, carry our sorrows, and do our work, so we might "enter into His rest."

“For whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. ”(Hebrews 4:10). He has learned, at last, a lesson. Without Christ, he can do nothing. But, he can do all things through Christ, who strengthens him. So, he has given up all self-effort. He has abandoned himself to God to work in him to do His will. This and this only is the rest that remains for the people of God.

Scientific men are seeking to resolve all forces in nature into one primal force. Unity of origin is the present cry of science. Light, heat, sound are all said to be the products of one force differently applied, and that force is motion. All things, say the scientists, can be resolved back to this. I cannot say if they are right or wrong. But, the Bible reveals a grand primal force behind motion. It is God's force. God is at the source of everything, God is the origin of everything, and God is the explanation of everything.

Without Him was not anything made that was made, and without Him is not anything done that is done.

It is no mystery. It is a simple fact. Our Lord says, "Without me you can do nothing." Of Himself, He said, “I can do nothing on my own." He meant that He and His Father were so one that any independent action was impossible. It must be a glorious necessity between our souls and Christ. That is why He said we could do nothing without Him. It means He has made us one with Himself. So, we cannot act independently towards Him, as He could not towards His Father.

Dear Christian, do n’t you see here a glimpse of a wonderful glory? Let’s believe that without Him, we can truly do nothing. We must believe it because it’s true. But let’s recognize this truth and start living by it from now on. Let’s turn away from living apart from Christ. From now on, let’s acknowledge Him in everything we do. Everything we do should be as a service to Him, for His glory. We rely on Him alone for wisdom, strength, patience, and everything else we need to live well.

As I said before, it is not so much a change of acts that will be necessary, as a change of motive and of dependence. The house will be kept, the children cared for, and the business run, perhaps as before.

Outwardly, it will be the same. But, inwardly, God will be acknowledged, depended on, and served.

There will be a great difference between a life of ease in His presence and a life of painful effort apart from Him.

Bringing God into our affairs will yield many benefits. We will gain divine wisdom in their conduct.

There will be a greater speed in accomplishing them. We will see a surprising increase in our resources.

We will better grasp the true nature of things. And, we will expand in ways that will amaze our cramped souls.

I mean this literally. The house will be nicer and easier to maintain. The children will learn faster. The stockings will be mended quickly. The hosts will be better at entertaining guests. The servants will be easier to manage. The deal will be more satisfying. And life will be sweeter and more peaceful. God will be i n every moment of it, and when He’s present, everything goes well. In this simple way, the soul will develop the habit of "abiding in Christ." His presence will become the most real thing in our lives, and we will have a quiet, private connection with Him that brings us joy.

A child of God may ask, "What is the quickest way to reach the highest union with God in this life?"

There is no quicker way than the one I have been declaring. By the homely path of everyday duties done thus in God and for God, the sublimest heights are reached. Not as a reward, but as a natural result. If we abide in Him and refuse to leave Him, we shall be where He is. All that He is will be ours.

If you wish to know, dear reader, the divine union in your soul, start today to practice what I have suggested.

Offer every moment and every action of your life to God. Say to Him, “Lord, I do this in you and for your glory. You are my strength, my wisdom, and everything I need. I rely only on you.” Refuse to live even for a single moment or do anything without Him. Keep doing this until it becomes a habit for your soul. Soon, you will understand the deep desires of your soul, and they will be fulfilled in the constant presence of Christ, your life within.