Dear Precious Friends,
On this beautiful new day, this start of a holiday weekend, we are awaking to a beautiful new day, a gift that God has given.. it's not just another day of our lives.. it's a beautiful and amazing gift that God has given us. He knew from the beginning we would be here for such a time as this.
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. So what does abide mean? I'm glad you asked... In the King James version the word - abide - appears 82 times the word - abideth - appears 30 times the word - abiding - appears 9 times.
Union with our Lord depends on His grace. Of course we are actively and personally united to Christ by faith (John 14:12).
True grace is realizing what Jesus did on the cross for us and living in never-ending gratitude of what He did out of love for us to secure our place in heaven with Him.
Union with Christ means being obedient to Him. Abiding involves our response to the teaching of Jesus, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you” (John 15:7a). Paul echoes this idea in Colossians 3:16, where he writes, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” a statement closely related to his parallel exhortation in Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit.”
In a nutshell, abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections. In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles! As Christ’s Word dwells in us and the Spirit fills us, we will begin to pray in a way consistent with the will of God and discover the truth of our Lord’s often misapplied promise, “You will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Romans 12:2 reminds us Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Christ underlines a further principle, “Abide in My love” (15:9), and states very clearly what this implies: as believers, we rest our life on the love of Christ (the love of the One who lays down His life for His friends, v. 13).
This love has been proven to us in the cross of Christ. We must never allow ourselves to drift from daily contemplation of the cross as the irrefutable demonstration of that love, or from dependence on the Spirit who sheds it abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5:5). Remaining in Christ’s love comes by our expression of simple obedience rendered to Him which is the fruit and evidence of love for Him (John 15:10–14).
We are called, as part of the abiding process, to submit to the pruning knife of God in the providences by which He cuts away all disloyalty and sometimes all that is unimportant, in order that we might remain in Christ all the more wholeheartedly.
Oswald Chambers shares these profound words: We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, 'Let not your heart be troubled . . .' (John 14:27)."
SO as we remember He is our salvation and in Him we will trust and not be afraid, let us be reminded of what it means to abide in Him and through these amazing truths we can go out and live this truth.
Amen.
