SCRIPTURE: I have loved you just as the Father has loved Me; remain in My love [and do not doubt My love for you]. If you keep My commandments and obey My teaching, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love…. This is My commandment, that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another, just as I have loved you. John 15:9-10, 12 AMP
THOUGHT: I love that old-fashioned word, abide. We don’t really use it anymore, but it is how the word “remain” is translated in many versions of the Bible (https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/John%2015:9). It carries with it a sense of permanence and goodness and trustworthiness; of active presence more than passive stillness. Abide and abode, in fact, are from a common root having to do with permanent residence.
Where “remain” seems more like a command, “abide” seems more like an invitation. I guess I draw the distinction because I hope you’ll see, as I do, the deep connection that we are invited into with Jesus.
The only time I can find Jesus issuing a command is the command to love each other as he has loved us – that is a command for something that we all need as much as we need water to live. Deep connection, deep abiding, foundations for trust, places of peace and rest where we are known and can give others (including God) the gift of being known too.
SONG: Abide With Me (Keith & Kristyn Getty) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnagUvvpGjw
PRAYER: Even as you have made your home in me, Lord, I want to make my home in you. Help me remember to daily accept your invitation to abide in your love, and to love others with the same deep connection and trustworthiness, providing places of peace and rest in this broken world.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
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