Abide

9:04 Wednesday Evening.

This is supposed to be my night off.  I find myself sitting in Coach House,  laptop on my knee, Bible opened to John 15 next to me, and a course assignment page in my notebook blaring the necessity for a 300 word essay on "WHAT IT MEANS TO ABIDE IN CHRIST."

Well, shoot.

To tell you the truth,  I don't really even know what it means to abide in Christ, except for that if you want to accomplish that, you just have to suck it up, keep trucking through life, giving thanks for every breath and living off of faith that He'll be faithful to you.  Which He will.  Because He's, you know,  Christ.

Okay.  So I lied.

I know a little bit more than that.

But knowing and explaining are two different things, and right now I just feel like curling up with Catcher instead of trying to define the pillars of my faith in a maximum of 300 words.

It seems pointless, really.  I mean, 300 words isn't even enough room to adequately describe what it means to abide in Christ.

Abiding in Christ means to rely solely on Him, I should think..  "I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. .... Abide in me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches."

Obviously we can't do much, or anything, by ourselves, can we?

Abiding in Christ is to rely solely on Him, putting all of our faith and trust in His timing, His mercy, His guidance, His salvation.  Only then can we be put to good use, and can bear fruit for Him on the vine.

Yes?  Yes.  Sadly, I need a few more words than that.

Well...  Okay.

Christ is the ultimate picture of redemption, yes?  Redemption has to do with forgiveness, and peace, yes? Yes.

So, if we are to abide in Christ, we should strive for peace, and never take our redemption lightly.  It is only by His redeeming love that we are saved from eternal suffering and damnation, therefore an attitude of unlimited thankfulness and reverence for His ultimate sacrifice should be present, always.

I should think, also, a state of abode in Christ would have something to do with obedience to Him.  Especially if peace is truly an aspect of redemption- it would thus only make sense that in order to abide peacefully in Christ's redemption, we should hold to the truths He presents to us, and obey them cheerfully and willingly.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I 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."

In order to obey what He has spoken to us, we must learn the chosen words, and must therefore read our Bibles, yes?

"If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you."

So.  Recap.

What does it mean to abide in Christ?

Abiding in Christ means to recognize His ultimate sacrifice in dying on the cross to atone for the sins of mankind, and to be overjoyed and overwhelmed at the fact that He would choose to do such a thing for such lowly sinners as we.  We must also obey His commandments, for they are ordained through Him by God the Father and indwelled in us through the Holy Spirit.  We must live faithfully and habitually in His word, familiarizing ourselves with the Inspired truths found in the Bible and committing them to our hearts and our memories.  We must strive to be peaceful, and thankful, living by faith through grace in the abounding love and mercy of our God and Savior. We must love the people around us, we must commit ourselves to spreading the gospel to all the ends of the world.  We must yearn for God to break our hearts with what also breaks His, that we be a compassionate race, content to sacrifice and give for others just as He sacrificed and gave so much for us, His beloved sons and daughters.

These things, I believe are bare bones of what it means to abide in Christ.

We must also recognize our fallen state, and our sinful, deceitful nature, and that without Christ we cannot do anything on our own.  We are completely dependent on God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to do everything for us.  We are nothing on our own.  We must recognize that we will fall short of the glory of God every single time we try, but if there is sincere humility, and true repentance on our parts, He will be faithful in the remission of sins time and time again.  He will never turn His back on those whom He loves.


Okay. So maybe that wasn't so tough after all.