Abiding In His Love

John 15:4-5 "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. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."... Wow! What a challenge this is for us.


John 15 is one of my favorite passages. It has so much in it - that I encourage you to read the entire chapter. It is one that grabs my heart and challenges me daily to make time to "abide".

ABIDE means: To wait, to endure without yielding, to bear patiently, to accept without objection, to remain stable or fixed in a state, to continue in a place. Synonyms: Stay, continue, bear. ABIDING: enduring, continuing.
In this passage abiding has to do with being - not in doing. It is not the things that we do that are the essence of abiding, but it has more to do with our relationship with Christ. The things we do in our Christian walk, like reading scripture, praying, sharing our faith, etc... is hopefully the outcome of a relationship with Jesus that understands what it means to really "abide" in Him. Yet, they are not the essence of what abiding is... Abiding is when we open our heart and life to allow time to remain in His presence. We can use Bible reading and prayer to help prepare our hearts to "be" in the place of abiding, but it is when we stop our efforts and really yield ourselves to Him in relationship where true abiding begins. As a branch is graphed into the vine to gain its sustenance, so we must have our lives graphed into Jesus to draw our sustenance from His life. He awaits our giving Him space/time in our day so He can share Himself with us. He is not distant from us - but rather scripture says He gave us His Holy Spirit to indwell us. This is the life blood of our connection to Jesus. We gain understanding into His heart and become more acute to hearing His voice speaking to us... when we give Him time in a place of stillness - abiding. This is not a time of our agenda, but a time of our surrender to Him. Waiting expectantly - relating joyously - deeply.
This chapter goes on to tell us that this place is a place of love. Jesus extends to us the same love that He received from the Father. The place we abide in is the place of His love. John 15: 9-11 states, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 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. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." Jesus told all of this to fill our hearts with joy! It excites me to know that His love is there for me. I love coming to Him and allowing Him to pour His love into my heart and life. I so desire for this to be the outflow of my life... which these scriptures promise will produce fruit. It is fruit that will come out of being nourished in love.
Don't neglect that place of abiding love... He is there for you each day. Take time to abide no matter where you are this summer.