How Do We Abide?

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

How do we abide? And listen—we don't need to be creative. We live in a world that loves novelty. New shows, new iPhones, new everything. The answers to this question are the same as they've been for 2,000 years. The things in the Bible aren't hard to understand. They're so simple we just don't do them.

Scripture Focus: John 15:7, 9; Isaiah 26:3; Psalm 63:1, 3

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

"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love."

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You."

"My soul thirsts for You... Your lovingkindness is better than life."

Three things. The Word. The love of God. Prayer.

First, abide in His Word. Jesus says in verse 7, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you." Spurgeon wrote: "We cannot separate Christ from the Word, for in the first place, He is the Word. And how dare we call Him Master and Lord and not do the things which He says."

That word rhema—the sayings of Jesus. All that He has revealed to us in His Word. And it's more than listening, more than hearing. It's internalizing His truth. It's dwelling upon it.

Our lives are so busy that it mutes our ability to ponder, to think deeply about God. David Saxton says our spiritual life is “more akin to wolfing down a burger on a highway than enjoying a gourmet meal.” But to come to the Word of God and abide in it is to feast there.

Psalm 1: "Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on it day and night. He shall be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water." Not dry obligation. Delight.

The Word of God is not just our sword in the battle—it's our spiritual sustenance. John 6:63 says, "Your words are spirit and they are life." They're lifegiving.

Second, abide in His love. Verse 9: "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Abide in My love."

Think about that for a moment. How much does the Father love the Son? Infinitely. The God who is love, from everlasting to everlasting, loves the Son with infinite love. And Jesus says, "Just as the Father has loved Me—I have also loved you."

Can I tell you something personal? It's not hard for me to affirm that God is sovereign. I really believe He's in absolute control of every circumstance in my life. But it is much harder for me to simply believe that God absolutely loves me.

And Jesus says, "Abide in My love." Don't go far from this. Don't go a day without this. You are living the Christian life to the degree that you marinate and ruminate in God's real love for you—not just declared in Scripture, but demonstrated at a point in time at the cross, and poured out into your heart through the power of the Holy Spirit each and every day.

You cannot have a deep understanding of the love of God if you have a shallow relationship with His Word.

Third, abide in prayer. Verse 7—"Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you." How personal of a relationship can you have with someone you don't talk to? Part of the reason our spiritual lives feel anemic is because God becomes a thing to us rather than a personal being that we dwell in fellowship with.

You have access to the King of the universe every single day.

Stay dialed in