Abide in Christ!

In John 15:3-11, Jesus Christ says " Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

What does abide mean? To abide means to remain, not to depart, to wait for, to endure without yielding, to bear patiently, to accept without objection, to remain stable or fixed, to continue in a place. To sum this all up, Abiding has to do with continuing on in a permanent state. Not wavering or doubting.

There are many aspects of abiding in Christ but I’d like to focus on just one – and that is abiding in Christ in the context of BEING instead of DOING.

Let me explain….

“DOING” in relation to the Christian walk is: reading your Bible, going to church, witnessing, doing ministry,  doing good works, resisting temptation, fleeing from sin, etc. These are all good things to do as a Christian. These are things we should be doing. If we are not doing these things our walk with God and others will suffer.

However, if we are doing these things just because we are supposed to, or we are doing them in our own strength, we will miss out experiencing the abundant life promised to us. If we are not careful, we can become works oriented instead of Christ oriented.

To Abide in Christ is to be in the “BEING” mode. We will still do the things that God has called us to, but we are doing it in His strength.  Abiding in Christ is about giving up control over our lives allowing Him to direct it. The relationship is more important than the things we do or don't do. Remember  the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Martha was in the DOING mode while Mary was in the BEING mode.

The more we are abiding in Him, the more we exhibit our faith in Him. His voice becomes clearer, we have more peace in our lives and we will be not grow weary because we are doing things in His strength.

To abide therefore is to experience His presence, His peace, His guidance and His protection.

Isaiah 27:3
 “I, the Lord am its keeper; I water it every moment. So that no one will damage it, I guard it night and day.

This is God’s promise if we abide in Him daily. He will keep us and guard us night and day.

How then can we Abide in Christ? How do we actually do that? Let me give three practical things for you to consider. These are nothing new to us but it’s good to be reminded.  As they say in Pilipino, “Ang pako hindi babaon pag hindi pinupukpok”

1.      Obey God at all costs

John 15:10
"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

Obey God immediately when God gives you an instruction. Instruction not only comes through the written word in the Bible. It may also come in many others ways such as through other people or through circumstances. God can also speak to you directly in your quiet time or prayer time. The important thing is to obey God's instructions.

Sometimes, obeying God takes backbone and the most courage you'll ever work up in your life. We must therefore depend on Him for grace and power to obey.

In business, it can very costly to obey Christ. Look at it this way, It’s not our money anyway. We are mere stewards of Gods resources.

2.      Pray to God in all circumstances

The more that you converse with God, the closer you will become to God's guidance daily. This will result in obedience to Him.

John 15:7
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

When you pray, ask God these questions: Where to Lord?, What now Lord?, How Lord?, HhHHHMMMMHjhasasdfkljhqwerpoiuertiuyzx,mcvn   ozooisdlksdjfkWhen Lord?. Ask God for directions. Allow God to direct your paths.   

3.      Receive from God with all your heart.

When you get what you want from God. Praise Him and thank Him with all your heart.

This is easy to do. We have no struggle with this. What about when you don’t get what you want? This is the challenge. This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to abiding in Christ- to be able to praise Him and thank Him with all your heart as well.

If I was not prevented from doing what I wanted as a naughty 4 year old child by my father, I would have done the following things: burned our house down- I liked playing with matches, got electrocuted- I liked poking the sockets, choked to death- I liked putting things in my mouth, run over by a car- I liked running away from my yaya, bitten by our dog- I liked kicking our dog.

Everytime I was prevented by my father from doing any of these things, I would cry as if the whole world was against me. But now I know better.

Same is true with our relationship with our heavenly father. In the eyes of God, we are like little children and He is our Father who disciplines us. His motivation is His love for us that we will not ben harmed. When you abide in Him, it is a way of acknowledging that He has your best interest at hand and that He knows best.  In this way, you can truly be thankful that you did not get what you want, which is actually a blessing “in disguise”.