One Heart, One Mind: Unity

The song, 'One Heart, One Mind' reveals God's longing for his children to have one heart and mind. My question to God was: How? His answer? Abide in me.

"Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." John 15:4 ESV

Have you considered what it means to be a branch? A branch connects to the trunk. It doesn't work to stay connected, clutching at the tree, hoping for nutrients. Its attachment draws up water and nourishment from the roots. Fruit appears from connection. It is a natural outflow.

How did Jesus illustrate this abiding principle in his life on earth? He only did and said what he saw his Father saying and doing. He hung out with God for hours in solitude. His time in prayer attracted his disciples to learn more about that practice.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." DT 6:4-5 NIV

Abiding means to remain in God's love. If we love God, our lives don't belong to us anymore. Jesus called us his friends. The command in John 15 says 'great love' looks like sacrifice. Jesus did that for us. If we follow in his footsteps, what does that look like in our daily lives? Maybe it's folding the laundry or cooking dinner. Maybe it's checking the oil or filling a tire when you'd rather do something else. Maybe it's turning off the TV and inviting someone over to play games or get crafty.

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:12-13 NIV

When you think about the brokenness in this world, the conflict, the heartbreak, the grief and the sheer ugliness of violence, do you imagine these words prayed by Jesus? Can you picture this answer? Working together as one body in love and harmony so that the broken world discovers Jesus.

There is brokenness in the world. There is also brokenness in the Body of Christ(Church). James reminds us of our need for humility in James 4. Perhaps it's time to grieve, mourn and wail for how we have treated each other. James also reminds us that anger does not create the righteousness that God desires and that we need to practice being quick to listen and slow to speak. (James 1)

As we resist the enemy's pull to justify and protect ourselves, may God grant us the grace to repent and walk the way of Jesus.

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one--I in them and you in me--so that they may be brought to complete unity. The the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:20-23 NIV)

Hyperlink to 'One Heart, One Mind'

Amen.