From Jesus Calling

From Jesus Calling...devotional reading for September 5th....

Do everything in dependence on Me. The desire to act independently--apart from me--springs from the root of pride. Self-sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it. But apart from me you can do nothing; that is nothing of eternal value.

I always thought that line from scripture was the ultimate grand slam...you can't do a damn thing without Me. You can't do squat!!! Yet the simple addition of the words "nothing that is of eternal value" sort of changes the meaning of the verse for me. If we live out of our carnal nature (ego) with occasional (or not so occasional) appearances of the pain body to further complicate our lives (and the lives of those around us) we cannot achieve anything of eternal value.

And from another devotional type writing of "old" by Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret To a Happy Life...about this topic she says:

I was present at a meeting where the leader opened with reading John 15, and the words, “Without me ye can do nothing,”*struck me with amazement. Hundreds of times before I had read those words, and had thought that I understood them thoroughly. But now it seemed almost as though they must have been newly inserted in the Bible, so ablaze were they with wondrous meaning.

“There it is,” I said to myself, “Jesus himself said so, that apart from Him we have no real life of any kind, whether we call it temporal or spiritual, and that, therefore, all living or doing that is without Him is of such a nature that God, who sees into the realities of things, calls it‘nothing.’ ” And then the question forced itself upon me as to whether any soul really believed this statement to be true; or, if believing it theoretically, whether any one made it practical in their daily walk and life. And I saw, as in a flash almost, that the real secret of divine union lay quite as much in this practical aspect of it as in any interior revealings or experiences. For if I do nothing, literally nothing, apart from Christ, I am of course united to Him in a continual oneness that cannot be questioned or gainsaid; while if I live a large part of my daily life and perform a large part of my daily work apart from Him, I have no real union, no matter how exalted and delightful my emotions concerning it may be.

and she sums it up in the last paragraph...

If, then, thou wouldst know, beloved reader, the interior divine union realized in thy soul, begin from this very day to put it outwardly in practice as I have suggested. Offer each moment of thy living and each act of thy doing to God, and say to Him continually, “Lord, I am doing this in Thee and for Thy glory. Thou art my strength, and my wisdom, and my all-sufficient supply for every need. I depend only upon Thee.” Refuse utterly to live for a single moment or to perform a single act apart from Him. Persist in this until it becomes the established habit of thy soul. And sooner or later thou shalt surely know the longings of thy soul satisfied in the abiding presence of Christ, thy indwelling Life.

Jesus declared that if we abide in him, we will bear fruit and that our fruit will abide (John 15:16)...be of eternal value.