By Ruth Dusingize 
HIGHLIGHT: Before we start growing in a relationship with God, we first have to pause to consider what our current relationship with Him is like. If it’s Laodecian or if our branches are not flourishing, Jesus has the perfect solution for our spiritual condition: to abide in Him.
Memory Text: John 15:9 NKJV
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
SABBATH: INTRODUCTION
How would you describe your relationship with God today—vibrant, distant, or somewhere in between? Jesus invites us to “abide in My love” (John 15:9), yet many believers find their walk with Him drifting into routine or lukewarm faith.
This study explores what it truly means to cultivate a living, growing relationship with God through His Word, prayer, and daily surrender. Drawing from Scripture, we’ll take an honest spiritual inventory and discover Christ’s counsel for renewal. A genuine relationship with God changes everything—now and for eternity. Join us as we seek a deeper, lasting connection with Him.
SUNDAY: OUR CONDITION
Just like the believers of the Laodecian church, Jesus describes us as lukewarm. These believers saw themselves as as righteous people, claiming to have great spiritual understanding, boasting as the right custodians of the truth and sufficent enough. It is this self-assured claim and their inability to see their need that produces and nourishes their pride and their lack of humility. They do not feel the need to learn anything, to grow, to change or realise the cause of their miserable condition and hence do not feel the need for repentance. And for this reason, Jesus describes them as poor, wretched, miserable, naked and blind.
(READ Revelation 3:14-22)
MONDAY: REBUKE, REPENT AND REWARD
Jesus rebukes us because He loves us. However, for us to be able to repent, we need to acknowledge the sorry state that we are in. In the quest of correcting our condition, just like He advised the Laodecians, God advises us as well to buy refined gold from Him. We shouldn’t settle for fake gold despite its “genuine appearance”, which symbolises God warning us against false and superficial religion.
In addition, God advises us to buy white raiment which symbolises the righteousness of Christ that we receive so as to cover our nakedness. Futhermore, God advises us to anoint our eyes with “eyesalve” to restore vision which makes one aware of one’s nakedness and one’s desire need of the divinely appointed remedial agencies.
(READ Revelation 3:20; 4:9-11; 5:11-14)
TUESDAY: EVERLASTING LOVE
Even as the Lord chastens us, it is for our own good, for His character of love is everlasting. Jesus knows how hard it is to overcome sin and He promises to help us. And by His death, He saved us from sin’s penalty and He continues to help us.
God’s diagnosis of His people’s true condition is designed to awaken within them a sense of their genuine helplessness and hopelessness apart from Him. Just like He closely related with His children such as Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses and the Israel nation, so does He want to intimately relate with you and I, individually.
He is seeking and waiting to draw you closer to Him. He wants to build or rebuild your relationship with Him.
(READ Revelation 3:21; Genesis 2:7; 3:8-10; 5:24; 6:13; 12:1-4; 34:29; Jeremiah 31:3&4)
WEDNESDAY: ABIDE
For us to have a close relationship with God(a remedy to the Laodecian condition that we are in), we need to abide in Jesus Christ. This means to live in connection with Him. He is the Vine and we are the branches. We only have life when we abide in Him and Him in us. Only by abiding in Him can we bear fruits. In addition, abiding in Jesus Christ enables us to go through the tough moments that we meet in life.
Furthermore, abiding in Jesus Christ means keeping His commandments for doing so shows our response to the love that He has for you and I. When we abide in Christ, the love from the Vine flows through us and extends to others around us as well.
(READ John 15:1-11; John 15:9; 1John 5:3)
THURSDAY: THE SAP
When the branches are connected to the vine, they cannot bear fruit in and of themselves unless the sap flows through its trunk to the branches. Only then can growth happen. Likewise, without the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we cannot grow our relationship with God however much we may study His word, go to church, pray and do what we think is right.
When we choose to spend time with God, the Holy Spirit makes us to grow and mature spiritually.
Furthermore, He is the Helper whom Jesus Christ left with us with. Therefore, you and I need to make a conscious choice to want to abide in Jesus and we must also ask for the Holy Spirit to flow into our lives.
(READ Luke 11:13; Jeremiah 31:3; 1John 4:19; Romans 8:9-11; John 14:16-18; 15:26; 16:7&8,13)
FRIDAY: FURTHER THOUGHT
Abiding in Christ means a constant receiving of His Spirit, a life of unreserved surrender to His service. The channel of communication must be open continually between man and his God.
As the vine branch constantly draws the sap from the living vine, so are we to cling to Jesus, and receive from Him by faith the strength and perfection of His own character.
(READ Revelation 3:18&19; Desire of Ages p.676 and Manuscript 67, 1897 by Ellen G White)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- If you find it painful to look at yourself and your own spiritual condition, what hope is offered you in these verses for today?
- Right now, Jesus is knocking. He is calling. You, though, have to make the conscious choice to open your heart to Him. How can viewing the Cross and thinking about what it means inspire you to make that choice?
- What are the things in your life right now that, unless overcome, can and do hinder your relationship with God?
- Ellen G White talks about “a constant receiving of His Spirit”. How often do you pray for the Holy Spirit? What might change if you received the Holy Spirit every day?
Shalom Insights