Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss the first lesson in the new quarter – Reality Check. It’s the fastest hour of the week!

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/reality-check-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reality-check-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school

Daily Lesson for Thursday 2nd of April 2026

Abiding in Christ can sometimes feel like one of the hardest things to do. We might know that it’s what we need, but the rush of life pulls us into its stream, and it all feels too hard. Following God can seem like the biggest burden ever, especially for those badgered by someone trying to get them to follow Jesus. This kind of religion can feel like drudgery because it’s all about external actions rather than what’s in the heart. Nothing could be further from what God desires, which is a relationship whose foundation is mutual love, not just rules; a chosen relationship (in which He first chose you) based on love and free choice.

Sometimes we might be partly connected to the Vine but not really abiding with every fiber of our being. We might go to church, pray, and do what we know is right, but inside we feel shriveled up. The truth is this: we can’t make ourselves abide in Jesus any more than a branch can make itself connect to a vine. God loved us first; He made the first move. Our response is always a reaction to what God has first done for us.

Image © Sherry Boettcher at Goodsalt.com

If you, meanwhile, look at how a grapevine survives through winter, you’ll learn a fascinating fact—the buds on the branches become dehydrated and isolated from the growing system until spring. When the soil warms up, the roots absorb water, and sap flows up through the trunk of the vine into the buds and then initiates growth. Without the sap flowing through the vine, no growth will happen.

The sap in a grapevine is like the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We might be like a dead branch, but when we choose to spend time with God, the Holy Spirit enters into us like the sap from the roots and brings us to life so that we start to grow. In the same way that we need to make a conscious choice to want to abide in Jesus, we must also ask for the Holy Spirit (the sap) to flow into our lives.

It’s actually the Holy Spirit who brings growth and ensures that we’re thriving and connected to the Vine. We need to ask daily for the Holy Spirit, who is here with us on earth to:

• be our Comforter (John 14:16-18),

• reveal Jesus to us (John 15:26),

• convict us of sin (John 16:7-8), and

• guide us into all truth (John 16:13).

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26b-01-linked-to-the-vine/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26b-01-linked-to-the-vine