You Don't Drift into Closeness | Mornings with Mico

Good people, what's up with you? This week we've been talking about surrender, particularly the path to surrender and just been slicing it up each day and kind of unpacking a different aspect element of the path to surrender. And today we are looking at this path to surrender through the lens of abiding, which honestly for me is just one of those, those words that really just carry, it just holds a lot of weight. It just really speaks to my heart. It's whenever I see, you know, just that, that, that idea of abiding with God and scripture, like I'm naturally drawn in when I see David and just as a shepherd boy, him, you know, tending to the sheep and all the day long, just in commune with God, not like just this morning devotional thing, but like at all times throughout his day, just mindful of God and communicating with God and, and just in his presence all day long. Like that's just, I don't know. It's, it's something that I long for. It's something that I'm drawn to when I see how Abraham walked with God and just the tenderness in their relationship, just the closeness, the friendship that they had Noah's described in Genesis as one who walked with God. And to be honest with you, that's actually an aspiration of mine to one walk closely with God, but then also to be marked by that, right? Like whether I'm here or after I pass for that to be an identifying trait, you know, a man that walked with God. And today we're in the book of John chapter 15, starting in verse four and five, and this is Jesus talking to the disciples and he says, remain in me as I also 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 you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. And I think this like, like, I love, I love how this really just like, it's just a very clear cut passage about like, yes, there's, there's, there's the fruit of abiding with God is just that intimacy and that oneness that you have with him. But also that is a prerequisite for fulfilling the purpose that he has with you, right? It paints this picture of a branch being disconnected from the vine. You know, as you can just imagine a stick just on the side of the road, that stick no longer serves its purpose. That stick was once a part of a vine, a part of a tree, and maybe apples or peaches or, you know, strawberries, you know, grew from that branch. Like that was its intended purpose. But once it's disconnected from that tree, it no longer serves its purpose. And that's us when we're not tethered to God, when we're not connected to God, as we're growing in this posture of surrender and, and embracing, you know, surrender, like there's such

a, you can't do that without abiding, right? Like in God. And as we abide in him, like that's where we become useful. That's where we begin to live out our actual purpose that he's called us. And so any of the, the worldly chaos that we may experience or the disconnect, the discontentment that we feel like that is, that's by design. We're supposed to feel that when we're not connected to God, when we're not tethered to God, you know, from our heart and, and it's, it's, it's just to, just to be clear that as he's describing abiding here, it's, it's so much about staying connected to him. It's so much about remaining in him and not drifting. And I think we oftentimes try to produce, um, grow, um, or change like on our own aside from him and whatever those efforts produce, it's not by his design. It's not, um, it's, it's not in alignment with his purpose. And I think Jesus just makes it, you know, very clear, to be honest with you, just fruit is not something that you force. It's something that flows from this connection and just adds weight to the why behind this connection. Um, as I stated a few days ago, talking to my friend and how he's just kind of recognizing, like he's just kind of living a. fruitless life to a degree. Like it just seems like a lot of stagnation and there's a lot of, you know, frustration he's having with just the way things are going and also identifying like that there is also, there's a disconnect in his relationship with God and just recognizing that those two correlate, you know, it's not by happen chance, it's not coincidence, but a lot of times, like that is a big piece of the, um, the reason why we feel this discontentment and, you know, life just kind of being out of whack. And to be honest with you, I think as we grow in our maturity with God, we can actually see that as a blessing because, whoa, you know, it is the one who can remain outside of him, not tethered to God, completely drifted and not feel that discontentment. You know what I mean? Like how long can you live and like feel fulfilled, I guess, to a degree, um, at least at a surface level, um, outside of his will, outside of being connected to him and how sad, like, is that life, you know, especially once

you know what life is like with him, it's like, that's, there's nothing about my past life that I still like desire friends that I have that are still like hustling or just still, you know, in the mix or whatever, like it's, there's nothing desirable about it. It's, it's like, I can recall being there. So it's not like I'm judging you or anything, but I'm like, I'm, I'm glad like I've gotten to a place, you know, in my walk with God where like, that's not even appealing to me anymore. I want us to, um, to just be clear that, um, as we're walking with God, right. Um, as we're growing in our surrender that we don't have to strive for, um, to produce fruit, we don't have to strive for anything. Um, we're called to just abide in him. That's not, that's not like a, it's not void of effort, but it's, it's void of like earning, like you don't, you don't, you're not, you're not, um, operating out of this sense of, you know, the, the, the, um, it's all on me. I've got to produce it. I'm going to make this thing happen. I'm going to pull myself up by my bootstraps and I'm going to be the one to put this thing together. Like this posture of abiding with God is truly just, it's like a rest. It's still diligence. It's still effort. It's still stewardship, but it's also recognizing who's doing the heavy lifting, you know, and, um, just remaining connected to him throughout all of this. I wanted to, I wanted to, um, leave you something as we, uh, as we kind of wrap this up, just, um, always trying to give you something to, um, to sit with God with, um, like after these chats right here, um, so that you're not just only being, you know, fed by this, whatever this, you know, um, does for you, but also wanting you to then like, okay. As you're hearing this, as you're, as you're, you know, as you're chewing

on this to actually take something, sit with God and then see what he has for you in it, you know, uh, which sometimes may just be him expounding on, you know, these kinds of discussions, or it may be something completely different, but I at least want to kind of give you some sort of framework to, um, to, to use, to, um, to kind of build from. So three things, um, as you're sitting with God today, what does your current connection with God actually look like? Do you feel like a branch not attached to the vine? Um, or maybe you're like, nah, you know, like I'm connected. You know what I'm saying? Like, I recognize that, like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm tethered. I'm walking with him. I'm abiding with him. Right. Um, whichever it is, like first, just come into awareness of whatever the thing is, and where are you striving instead of abiding, are there any areas of your life, is it a relationship? Is it, um, something with work? Is it, is it, is it, is it friendships, you know, um, naturally my mind goes to like a relationship with a, with your child or something, right. Um, where there may be like distance there and are you trusting God? You know, are you abiding with God even in that, right? Are you abiding with God and trusting God to, to gracefully care for and, and, and have his arms wrapped around the things that matter to you, as opposed to you, striving, trying to piece these things. and make these things happen, whether it's in relationships, whether it's a financial situation, whatever the case may be. And the third thing, what rhythms or habits help you to stay connected to God consistently?

You don't drift into abiding. There are like blocks that you build to like create disciplines and structure around what it is to abide with God. Certain times that you may set for yourself in the morning to sit with God and journal and pray. And there may be a certain thing that you do, you pray before every meal. And then maybe there's a midday acknowledgement. Maybe that's when you listen to worship music or you go on a walk with God. And then at night, maybe you do some reading. I don't know, whatever that may look like for you, but what are some rhythms or some habits that you have? And if you don't have any, then I challenge you, implement some. Whether it's something that you see somebody around you doing, whether it is a fasting that you do. For me, I fast once a week. I do my morning devotions. I also work in ministry, so it's like I'm always God adjacent, you know what I mean? But that's still not a replacement for being tethered to him and pursuing relationship with him throughout my day. To me, I often just have worship instrumentals playing, even in my commutes back and forth to work. I'll just have worship instrumentals playing. Sometimes I listen to music, but for the most part,

I'll either have that playing or sometimes I'll just, I'll go seasons where I just ride in silence, where I'm just like, so now I'm forced to think or sit with my thoughts, as opposed to just being distracted by music or a podcast. Now it's like, okay, now this is a discipline I'm gonna put together because now it forces me to, or at least it helps me to be present with God in that moment. I remember when I was locked up, there would be times, and my homeboys used to think I was weird for this, but I would go a month or something with just no electronics, no electronics. Unless it's something that can feed me, I'm not listening to secular music. I'm not watching TV. I'm going on walks, just being with nature, especially once it starts getting warm out, things like that. But these are just things that I just started to implement. Like being present, I would walk the track and I would just try to listen closely to every natural sound that I could hear, whether it's a lawnmower in the distance or birds chirping or basketball, but I would just, I would try to identify and that was just the discipline I put in place to just be present.

Those are just some examples. I know that kind of like extended this a little longer than I intended to, but if you made it this far, just, I'd love for you to just sit with God today and do that inventory. Acknowledge what your current connection looks like with him today. Check for some areas where you may be striving instead of abiding. And then what rhythms or habits help you to stay connected to God consistently? All right, see y'all tomorrow.