The Abiding Life

Abiding with Jesus has a lot of benefits for now and eternity.

 

John 15:7-11  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

9  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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.

11  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

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Today's scripture is a continuation of the study that I recently did in John 15:1-8, in those verses Jesus told his disciples "I Am The Vine." In that lesson Jesus taught the disciples that a real Christ follower is attached to the vine, he is getting his nourishment from the vine and he will be pruned so that he can produce more fruit. (John 15:2,5)

A vine and the branches is just one of the ways that the Bible describes the intimate relationship of a Christ follower. The Bible also illustrates this relationship as a body and its many members (1 Corinthians 12:1-31), a bride and the Bridegroom (Ephesians 5:25-33), and as sheep and the Shepherd (John 10:1-18)

These illustrations show us that abiding is a dependent relationship, the Christ follower must depend on Jesus as well as other believers in order to survive, yet it is still a friendly and intimate fellowship where we live and work together in harmony to please God and advance his kingdom.

The "abiding life" has many benefits, Jesus continues to tell us in today's scripture that abiding in him is the only way to get our prayers answered and it is the only way to live in love and obedience just like Jesus did.

The abiding life has prayers answered

Psalms 66:18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Are your prayers being answered? Does it seem like nothing is happening? Whatever is asked for from a clean heart that is living for God's will and seeking to promote the kingdom is going to get answers.

When we are abiding in Jesus we will ask for the right things, he will keep us from asking for things that we shouldn't ask for, we will pray for the things that please God instead of the prayers that please ourselves. 

The abiding life will live in Jesus love 

Ephesians 3:17 Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.

"What the world needs is love, sweet love, Its the only thing that there's just too little of" is the lyrics to a song by Dionne Warwick, she saw the problem but she did not know the solution, she didn't know that God's perfect love is what we need to end the love shortage that she saw.

If you feel unloved then check out what Jesus tells us in verse nine, he says that to the same degree that God loves Jesus is the amount of love Jesus has for me, you can't get loved any more that that. What an incredible thought, that stupid dirty sheep that are so unworthy can be loved so much!

The abiding life will obey God just as Jesus did

Luke 22:42 "Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine."

Jesus was obedient to his Father's will  and he expects us to do the same. There isn't any other way to prove your love to him than to see your old sinful ways as detestable and move toward doing the things that please God.

It is very dangerous to think that you can be a Christian and still live in your old sinful, disobedient ways. True repentance sees how detestable our ways are and the cost that was paid on our behalf and it refuses to live that way anymore. Without true repentance we cannot abide with Christ, we will not produce fruit and we will not please God.

Colossians 1:9-10  So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.  10  Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

The "abiding life" is not a supernatural resource that you tap into to fix life's problems and then return to your old carnal ways. Once you have begun to cultivate this deeper communion with Christ, you have no desire to return to the shallow life of the careless Christian, you will remain in Christ through the good and the bad times.

The "abiding life" seeks to glorify God, when people see the fruit of the Holy Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,” in us, God will be glorified. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Help me Lord to live the "abiding life." I want to know what pleases you and apply it to every area of my life.

Living With Eternity In Sight

How to get through this world while you wait for Jesus return.

1 Peter 5:6-11  So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor.

7  Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. 8  Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9  Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.

10 In His kindness God called you to share in His eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation. 11  All power to Him forever! Amen.

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As Peter comes to the close of his letter to the churches in Asia Minor he gives them a summary of how to live and what their attitude should be as they wait for Christ return. It is a message that is just as relevant to us today.

Humility

One of the biggest struggles that we have is with humility, God knew that we would have a challenge in this area, so the importance of humility is taught throughout the Bible. Humility is required for salvation, we need it in order to see ourselves the way that God sees us, without humility we will not turn to God and ask for help. From that point on our lives should be known for humility, once we see ourselves the way that God sees us, we should find it difficult to view ourselves as much without him.

Isaiah 57:15  The high and lofty One who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: "I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

It can be difficult to yield to God's plan and humbly allow his power to work in your life, he may bring calamity and difficulty for a season in order to bring glory to himself or the hard times may be there for your spiritual growth, sometimes it might look easier to take the controls and do things our way.

Here is a statement that I found in a commentary on these verses: "If we do not humble ourselves under God’s grace then he will humble us under his judgments." Either we will humble ourselves voluntarily or the day will come when we will be humbled by God.

Trust

It is difficult to trust in this world that is full of selfishness and pride, we all try and get our way and look out for ourselves but there is a place and a person that you can put your trust, a place where we can unload without fear. We can go to the cross where we are completely accepted by God and we can trust him to lighten our load.

Psalms 55:22  Give your burdens to the LORD, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

What more can anyone wish for than to know that the great and merciful God of the universe thinks about you? Not only does he think about you but he also cares! Amazing thought isn't it?

Stay Alert and Stand Firm

Watch out! Satan will try to use any opportunity to make our lives useless for God. Initially he is out to destroy you by making you a prisoner to death but once you are a child of God and you are no longer under the curse of death his next plan is to make you useless for God.

James 4:7-8  So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Satan will try to make you fearful and ineffective but we can stand our ground if we stay alert to his schemes. Our best defense against that "roaring lion" is to stay close to God. It seems to me that the devil must hate God and be repulsed by him and the last thing that he wants to do is hangout close to him. So if I am staying close to God then the devil won't want to come close to me.

Perspective

It is best to live with your long term goal in site. Do you have a long term goal? Every child of God has one but too often the stuff of this world will try and take our focus from the eternal glory that we will share with Jesus and get our focus on the short term problems around us.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18  For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!   So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

God has called me to greater things than I can imagine! God will take care of every need for this life and he will provide for my eternal destination. The devil will use the pain and trouble of this world to try and get me off track but I will choose to "fix my gaze on things that cannot be seen."

Thank you Lord for teaching me how to get through this world, thank you for loving me and giving me a new perspective on how to live, help me to keep my eyes on the eternal.

Related articles

• Satanic Schemes (wisdomhunters.com)
• The Church Needs Good Shepherds (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
• He's Alive! Now I'm Alive! (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)