ABIDE

John 15:4
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
-- The Quotable Oswald Chambers

Abide means "to wait" "to remain, continue, stay" "to endure without yielding" "withstand, "bear patiently" "tolerate" "dwell" "reside"

Oswald says about abide that "there is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.  We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed."

My friend Teresa sent me a wonderful encouraging e-mail about how God is the vine and we are the branches and how nothing happens in our life without his knowledge.   I was so encouraged by that reminder.  By her words.   I know that as a believer in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior -- He abides in me, and I in Him.  He dwells in me because of that blood covenant.

But I've never considered the action part of that in my life.  Abide is a verb - verbs are action.  Even as I abide in Christ during hard times and trials, it isn't that God is quiet and doing nothing, as it sometimes seems. It's that He's busy abiding in me - pursuing me, as I pursue Him.  He is "Abiding in Me, and I in Him."

It's so easy to think we're a branch dangling in the wind, with our lonesome self.

But that's not true.

When we abide in him, we are never alone.  Never forsaken.  Even as I'm waiting for healing in my son, I am abiding.  Doing all I can.   Praying.  Even as I endure without yielding - defeat upon defeat - I am that branch, clinging to the vine.  Even as God himself bears with me patiently, tolerating my faults & foibles, He continues to dwell and reside in me.

He Abides in me.

He Never Gives Up.

He Never Quits.

What a comfort that word is to me today....  So many times I've felt like a dangling leaf at the end of that branch at the mercy of the slightest breeze.  So very many times people who I thought were my friends have cut me off over misunderstandings or hurt feelings.  In a few instances I've been disillusioned and burned by false idols.  Heroes I thought could do no harm, yet did.

But not God. 

Not my vine.

He's always got my back.

No.matter.what.

In John 15:5 God says, "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."

We can choose to abide in so very many things or people that are far from Christ.  But if we're not abiding in Christ, our abiding is in vain.......

Abiding in Christ I can do all things...
...endure without yielding
...withstand
...bear patiently
...tolerate

No matter what condition my son is in or what circumstance of life we must face -

I will abide in Him.

I will Never Give Up.

I will Never Quit.