Abide
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. John 15:4
The enemy is all around us. He has one desire. To pick you off! To mess your life up. He wants you dead!
That being understood, how many of us attempt to walk out the door every morning in our own strength? Oh we say all kinds of flowery things..and we might even post scripture on our facebook (so that makes us super strong against the attacks of the devil, right?? ) Here is the thing…Jesus said to ABIDE in him. Abide means to remain or stay around. How many of us claim to know Jesus, but we’re not really sticking around? I’m going to say something that might sting a little… the abiding believer is the only legitimate believer.
A Christian who claims to follow Christ, but has no desire to want to know Him and be known by Him…there is a problem. I hear alot of Christians say ‘Man, I wanna be used by God.’ And that sounds good…but in reality I don’t really care if I’m used by God or not. There were alot of EVIL people who were USED by God.
I want to KNOW GOD! I want to BE KNOWN by GOD!
That’s what really counts!
Psalm 27:4 says:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
That’s what I want.
How do we get there?
WE HAVE TO ABIDE!! We remain…. we wait on the Lord. We stay rather than leave. Listen for his voice and He will answer you.
How do we Abide?
- Spend time in prayer. Ask for wisdom on how God wants you to abide with Him.
- Dedicate to time in the Word. Pick a good time to open the word and read and study it. (start with John 14 & 15)
- Join a body of believers that will walk with you in this process of learning to abide in Christ.
- Keeping a journal of your walk is very helpful.
Each moment that we are going forward in this we are getting stronger. Each moment that we are focused on Jesus Christ the more we grow to be more Christ like and that is the goal of this whole thing.