“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.”
John 15:5 NIV
We have a Red Lab named Rosie- let me rephrase that: we have the most adorable dog on the planet, her name is Rosie, and we love her very much. My husband and I may or may not talk to her more than we talk to each other; but hey to each their own!
One of the cutest things about her is that she has a toy rope that she is obsessed with- if she isn’t laying at our feet then she can usually be found chewing on her rope.
If we see her walking around without her rope and we ask her,”Rosie, where is your rope?!” She stops, looks at us, looks around and then goes running off to find her rope. Sometimes it takes her a couple minutes to find but typically she comes running back with a “smile” on her sweet face, rope in mouth ready to play! Occasionally though, we see her laying down trying to grab it from under the couch- her precious rope just out of reach, then we have to get down on hands and knees and help slide it out for her. If we don’t do this she will be there for a very long time, perhaps taking a break to come up to us and try to lead us over to where the rope is stuck. She does this, continually, trying to get our attention until we realize that she needs our help! She will try to grab it but once she sees she can’t she comes to us for help liberating her rope!
I think our journey of faith can be much the same. God will plant a passion in our hearts, leading us on a path, but that doesn’t mean the path will always be smooth. We will run into roadblocks and try as we might we may not be able to get around it and solve the problem on our own. I notice though, at least for me, even though I know that I can do nothing without Him I end up trying and trying to do the thing He has set before me, banging my head off the wall, trying to do it on my own. Ultimately I have to remember who placed these desires in My heart to begin with. He never intended for me to do it by myself! Just as my dog needs our help to retrieve her toy, so we also need God’s help to overcome any obstacle in our lives. We try so often to solve things on our own and in our own way, when if we would only surrender sooner and ask God for help He would come to our rescue and deliver us.
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