Tag: abide

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God wants us to Abide in Him.

I really want to “finish well” in the time I have left here on earth. I have recently written on Focusing on “What’s Next” and learning how to focus on others rather than myself. It has led me to the realization that if I am to finish well I must learn how to Abide which is defined as “accepting or acting in accordance with (a rule, decision, or recommendation)

Jerry Bridges says there are four essential elements to finishing well. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/four-essentials-to-finishing-well He writes, “I have come to the conclusion that there are four fundamental actions we can take to help us finish well. There may be other issues that are important, but I believe these four are fundamental. They are:

  • daily time of focused personal communion with God
  • daily appropriation of the gospel
  • daily commitment to God as a living sacrifice
  • firm belief in the sovereignty and love of God” 

All of these lead me back to the command that I am to abide in Christ. Like the definition, I need to accept the rule that God created me and my life is better lived if I act in accordance with that belief. The word Abide initially promotes a peaceful and restful posture and yet it is an active verb, not a feeling or a belief, but something we do. It means to “remain” or “stay”, even “attached or rooted” in the One who wants to nourish us to be the best we can so we can finish well. John 15:5 says we are to be like a branch rooted in love that can only live if it is attached to the vine. It entails far more than the idea of continued belief in the Savior. It means actively living out our lives in the way God’s Son lived His life before He died for us. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2;4-6) Psalms 37:23,24 promises us that “The Lord will firm up the steps of the one who delights (abides) in Him. We will make mistakes and stumble but will not fall because Lord is there upholding us with His hand” 1 John 2:10 reinforces the psalmist saying, “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him”

This is the man I want to be. A man who endeavors to walk in the manner seen in the life of Christ. A man who knows he has and will stumble and make mistakes but won’t fall because the Lord is always there and promises to never fail me. May my actions exhibit that I believe that God is in control of my life and therefore I accept and will act accordingly with that truth. May I be like Jeremiah who prayed: “Let me not boast of my wisdom
    or boast of my strength
    or boast of the provisions I have been provided or in what I have accomplished.
But let me be the one who boasts about this:
    that they I have an understanding of who God is and that He loves me.
that He is the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth and,
    for in me He delights,” Jeremiah 9:23,24 (Guthrie version :)) Therefore, may my answer to What’s Next always be to Abide in Him!


Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that my One Word for this year is RISE! https://thankfulinallthings.com/are-you-ready-to-rise-up-p-with-me-in-2023/ Resoved, Intentional, Striving for Extraordinary things with a focus on What’s Next. May my answer to What’s Next always be to Abide in Him! I hope I have encouraged you to do the same. You can reach me by email at [email protected]

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The beauty of being unselfish

Those who have spent any time with me know I have certain catch phrases. “Remain thankful in all things”, “Turn Gratitude from a noun into a verb”, “This is not our room/meeting it is God’s” , and “Lead with a servant heart”. Oswald Chambers this week summed these up by writing, “So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God.”https://utmost.org/ The bible calls this mindset, dying to oneself. Billy Graham writes, “In order for a tree or any plant to grow and bear fruit, its seed must first be planted in the ground and die. In order for fruit to appear in our lives, we must first be planted in the Word of God and then die to self. https://billygraham.org/answer/what-does-it-mean-to-die-to-self/

We are all the center of our own universes. We are in every moment of our every day. God created us to follow and obey Him. Mr. Chambers’ quote above teaches that we are to be outward focused instead of living life with an “it’s all about me” mentality. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” The new is about filling ourselves with God through the Holy Spirit so the phrases I mentioned earlier become a reality in how we treat others that we encounter along the way.

Oswald Chambers writes about the need to Abide in Christ if we are to live out the life God has for us. “A true disciple is one who has his new name written all over him— self-interest, pride, and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.” John 15:13 says it is about dying to ourselves. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Laying down our lives means moving away from our own self interests to a mindset of loving God and having a desire to serve and be there for others. It is a moment by moment effort; focusing on (as I wrote about in my last blog post) only “What’s Next?” https://thankfulinallthings.com/simplify-your-life-by-just-focusing-on-whats-next/

Mr. Chambers teaches that “In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort.” Another way of looking at it is, the more we fill ourselves with God through the Holy Spirit, the less we will be worried about what’s best for us and more about what’s best for everyone else. This type of lifestyle will undoubtably create a positive impact on those who experience your care for them. The impact on you will be a sweet joy that comes from experiencing your true call and living your life in a way that honors God.

Thanks for finding and reading this blog. Please subscribe if you haven’t already. I can be reached by email at [email protected]