Abide in Me (John 15:7)
Recently someone sent me a very meaningful sympathy card following my Mother’s funeral that comforted my heart. The card merely contained the words to the great hymn
Abide with me,
Fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens;
Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail
And comforts flee,
Help of the helpless,
Oh, abide with me.
I need thy presence
Every passing hour;
What but thy grace
Can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like thyself
My guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine
Oh, abide with me.
by William Monk, Abide With Me” (1861)
Even though that song is great I believe the burden of abiding is not on the Lord but on us. As Jesus giving us a promise when He says, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.”
Perhaps the greatest need for Christians today is to develop a higher spiritual discipline of abiding in Christ and His word. Many studies show that around 5% of those who make decisions at evangelistic crusades continue in their walk with Christ five years later. Some bemoan the fact that even though church attendance holds steady at around 40% in America, personal holiness is on the decline as are morals.
Even though it is great to be able to think and reason with Biblical accuracy there is something even more important and that is abiding in Jesus.
Many of the things we think we need are symptomatic of a far more serious problem. There is a deeper need to know, commune and fellowship with the Lord on a moment-by-moment basis. Surely this is seen in the quality and persistence of our praise and prayer discipline.
Many Christian leaders know how to write, preach, teach, organize, develop evangelistic strategies and administer programs, but many have forgotten to pray without ceasing.
Illustration: Jon Piper writes, “Several years ago at a North American seminary, fifty students planning to go overseas in ministry for the summer were interviewed for their suitability. Only three--six percent--could testify to regular quiet times of reading the Bible and devoting themselves to prayer.
We assume that our pastors and missionaries are the models--we would be shocked I am afraid.”
We need to develop a progressing maturity in our prayer life that will transform us, deepen us and purify us with the mind and power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Jesus provides us with a conditional promise in this verse. That is if we want to see our prayers answered we must abide in Him and let His word abide in us. That means to cling to Him and His word with trust, obedience and communion with our God. We need a deeper, more personal and more biblical communion with God in prayer so we can grow more in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 3:18)
This means that we need to find ways to incorporate a greater quantity and quality of private prayer, small group prayer, congregational prayer, fasting and prayer, praise prayer, confessional prayer, requisition prayer, intercessory prayer, healing prayer, and institutional prayer for our schools, seminaries and training institutes – all for the purpose of abiding in Him and allowing His word to abide in us.
1. If you want to be what God wants you to be it is necessary to abide (remain, dwell and gain your nourishment) in Him and to allow His word to dwell richly in your mind. How much time and effort do you spend in memorizing and meditating on His Word. God told Joshua, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it, day and night so that you may be careful to do, for then you will make your ways prosperous and then you will have good success.” (Joshua. 1:8)
The best way to allow Jesus to abide in you is by allowing His word to fill your mind, heart, soul and emotions with His perspective. Often this means being creative. Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your hearts and whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. (Col. 3:16,17)
The branch cannot bear fruit unless it gains all of its minerals, nutrients and support from the Vine. Too many of us take our relationship with Jesus for granted and fail to appropriate the rich reservoir of resources that are available to those who gain a deeper spiritual overflow of His Life into ours.
Illustration: To meditate means to have a mental, spiritual and emotional mastication on God’s word. Just as a cow chew grass and then swallows it to stomach number one for greater digestion and absorption so we need to allow time, energy and focus to be put on God’s word so that it has adequate time to renew, recharge and reconstruct our minds.
2. To let Jesus abide in us means that we allow Him to speak to us. Through the Holy Spirit He convicts, redirects and reminds us of essential truth that is necessary to remain in the center of His will. It is not enough to merely think about His word, we must allow it to transform us more into the image of Jesus Christ. But this also sheds light on what it means for the words of Jesus to abide in us. Welcome Jesus into our lives and make room for him to live, not as a silent guest with no opinions or commands, but as an authoritative guest whose opinions matter more to us than anyone else’s and whose commands are the law of our life.
3. Allow Jesus Christ and His word to frame your priorities, perceptions and reactions to all of life’s situations. Often this means allowing the principles of Christ and His word to predominate your way of thinking. Abiding in Christ means that we are relying on His promises when we are pressed with all kinds of opposition, uncertainties and difficulties. One of my favorite promises comes from 2 Pet 1:3,4 that says,
“Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence, for by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises so that we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world but lust.”
4. Allow Jesus Christ and His word to give you authority, power and confidence that you are back by the Almighty God of the universe. Christ abiding in us is interchangeable with his words abiding in us because Christ never comes without his authoritative views on things. What that means for letting the words of Jesus abide in us is that we do not just read the Bible, and do not just memorize and meditate on the Bible, and do not just listen to preaching and teaching from the Bible. It means that we seek the words of Jesus as living words--words that come not in the abstract but come from the heart and on the lips of a living Person whom we love more than any other person in the world.
5. Abiding in Christ means that we are celebrating our fellowship with Him. Paul writes, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever more.” (2 Cor 16:13) The greater our fellowship the more we will realize the richness and be able to appropriate His grace and love in all dimensions of our lives. Jesus means for musing on his words to BE fellowship with him.
6. Abiding in Christ means finding your primary fulfillment in Him. Jesus said, “You have a choice, “The thief comes only to steal, slaughter, kill and destroy but I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) Do whatever is necessary to keep the living voice of Jesus speaking with you through the words that he spoke in Scripture. You are relating to a living person when you commune with the Lord in the silence of your mind. You intentionally find your satisfaction, joy and purpose in Him and His word’s directing you in all aspects of life and godliness.
1) Prepare yourself each day by setting aside time to read His word and talk with your heavenly Father about His plans, purposes and power for each aspect of life’s activities and its relationships. He wants to be involved at all levels of your lifestyle and thinking. Set aside a time when you will do nothing but read, study and pray through the scriptures to allow God to really speak to your heart. We can do nothing apart from Him of any eternal significance.
2). Memorize His word so that you can repeat, reiterate and review the great promises He has to enrich your life moment by moment. This will help you pray and commune more in the will of God and in the power of the Spirit. Paul wrote, “Praying at all times in the Spirit.” (Eph. 6:18) People who fail to do this are often more subject to feelings of defeat, depression and discouragement.
3). Allow the word of God to shape your thinking, attitude and values about all aspects of life and your relationships. Perhaps there is a blind spot that you have not been made aware of a weakness until you have allowed the light of the word of God to expose an area of deficiency. Walk in tune with the Spirit by adjusting your mind’s frequency to the wavelength of the word’s transmitting message.
4). Make a list of the attributes of God and praise Him for His character qualities. I have written a booklet called Power in Praise where I wrote 641 attributes of God and attached prayers of praise to the Lord for each one of His characteristics. This empowers me as I focus on what is true, noble, true, right, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise. (Phil. 4:8)
5) Take periodic retreats and time outs where you can saturate yourself with the Bible until you feel that you are lifted into the presence of the Lord in a remarkable way so that your prayers are uncluttered by worldly thinking.
Illustration: Wesley Duewel says that sometimes he takes retreats and seeks to quiet his heart completely until he senses only the presence and will of God. To do that he says, "I have at times read as many as fifty chapters from God’s Word before I was completely alone with God. But on some of those occasions I received such unexpected guidance that my life has been greatly benefited" (Let God Guide You Daily, p. 77).
6) Develop a prayer journal and write out your thoughts as you meditate on the scripture and develop essential prayer requests. I have my own prayer journal that I go through every morning reminding me to pray for essential aspects in my personal life relationships and ministries. It usually takes me about an hour to go through this every morning.
It allows me to do what David did when He prayed, “”Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go for to you I lift up my soul. Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord for I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will for you are my God. May your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” (Psa 143:8-10)
7). Develop a writing discipline as it is a way of developing deeper, sharper and clear understanding of God’s word for you and to those you relate to. I praise God for Sermoncentral.com as it is has helped me develop a discipline of writing sermons and teaching lessons that have helped to crystallize my appreciation for the rich nuggets of truth in every verse of scripture. We see more when we write than when we just read.
I know not how the light is shed,
nor understand this lens.
I only know that there are eyes
In pencils and in pens.
You don’t have to use the journal every time or every day. But do it sometimes and you will soon see the fruit.
8) Read great Christian writers who know God deeply and saturate their writing with the Bible and take you deep into its spirit. They are like reading the Bible through the mind and heart of great knowers and lovers of God. Don’t let long books daunt you. Finishing the book does not matter. Growing by it matters. But finishing is not as hard as you might think.
9). Read the scripture out loud and pray back the word to the Father verbally. The words of Jesus will abide in you more deeply and more powerfully if you give yourself to some serious reflecting on the Bible and with books that are saturated with Scripture.
10). Remember the value of solitude as you get alone with God in short time spans as well as in protracted times alone with God. Mark wrote of Jesus. While it was still dark, He went out to a lonely place and there He prayed.” (Mark 1:35) Jesus made it a daily discipline to be alone with His value to commune with Him and His word in prayer and reflection.
There is great value in being in solitude. I do not know if you realize this or not, but Jesus used solitude much during His life and ministry. He did not get by Himself in order to get away from people, but I think to hear the Divine whisper of His heavenly Father. Here are some places we find Jesus in solitude:
(1) Jesus began His ministry with 40 days alone in the desert, Matthew 4:1-11
(2) Before He chose the 12 disciples, Luke 6:12
(3) When He received the news of His cousin John the Baptist’s death, Matthew 14:13
(4) After the feeding of the 5000, Matthew 14:23
(5) Following the healing of a leper, Luke 5:16
(6) Before the Transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-9
(7) Before His arrest, trial, and execution on the cross, Matthew 26:36-46
11. Walk, pray and sing. Everyday, I make a celebration during my walks to carry some memory verses, several praise sheets and or a list of God’s attributes to meditate on as I get about thirty minutes of exercise and meditation. As I walk, pray and sing it helps me abide in the Lord by gaining a fresh perspective that the fresh outdoors enhances. When I survey the works of God’s creation and think on verses like Psa 124:1 where David writes, “The earth is the Lord and everything in it.” I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come from ? My help comes frm the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psa 121:1,2)
There is something stirring to the heart when I survey all the power of God’s creation and integrate with my meditation of scripture and songs of praise. Give yourself at least ten minutes everyday to walk, pray and sing as a way of enhancing your abiding in Jesus Christ.
Often I sing the song, "And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share and I tarry there. None other shall ever know."
There is something special and private about my walks with the Lord everyday as it helps me step back and remove myself from all the distractions of the office, the TV and the phone. Try it, and you will find a richer dimension added to your abiding relationship with Christ.
