Abide. The word God put on my heart as we began this year. Taking me back to Jesus’ words:
“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, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
To abide means “to stay, to continue in”. When I think about what it means to abide in Him, it means I’m staying in relationship with Him, remaining with an awareness of His Presence, spending time with Him, loving on Him, listening for His voice, living in surrender and dependency upon the Holy Spirit.
For us to flourish – to be fruitful, we need to live with a dependency upon God, connected and surrendered.
When I’m abiding in Him, I’m living with a constant awareness of His love for me! This impacts the way I go about daily life, the way I pray, and even the way I approach and respond to others.
Abiding in Him and allowing His word to abide in us brings us to a place where we can honestly say as Paul did, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
God’s truth has to be a part of our everyday. We’ve got to attach ourselves to Him through relationship with Him. It’s when we abide in Him that we best grow as God desires. It’s when we abide in Him that we flourish and bear good fruit!
