We are on our way home from a short week on the west coast. We did a lot in these past few days. Besides seeing the Tall Ships, we met some old friends, made new ones, and drifted around the island looking at various places and wondering what it would be like to live there.
It was hot the past few days too. We didn’t have air conditioning in our B&B so didn’t sleep very well on the rather lumpy mattress. We are looking forward to a cool house and our familiar bed. It seems reasonable to return from a vacation feeling rested, but I suspect we will want a nap after we get home. We will unpack first (doing it immediately is our habit), and have a bite to eat. Then I must post what God puts on my heart as we speed over the mountains and through the clouds.
On this airplane I am thinking about where we live and at the same time reading John 15. Verse 7 says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Jesus says I should make my habitation in Him. He says His words should make their habitation in me. If I do that, whatever I want, I just have to ask for it and He will make it happen—an amazing promise!
Abiding seems a simple concept, but is it? Later on in this passage, Jesus says that the way to abide or dwell or make my habitation in Him is by obedience. That is, if I obey God, I am abiding in His will. I wonder if that is the same as abiding in Him? I think so, but perhaps with a subtle difference. Abiding in His will is obedience; abiding in Him is living in the fulness of who He is, being continually filled with the Spirit and letting Him totally control my life.
While I probably cannot obey without being filled, somehow being filled implies more than simple obedience. Being filled is not mere actions, but why I do them, how I think about them, and my inner attitudes toward God and others. Certainly, if I am abiding or dwelling in God, I will not be stuck in my fleshy I-wants, or wrapped up in the lies of Satan, or even much concerned about where I live in this world. All that should matter to me is that God dwells in me and I dwell in Him.
Jesus says that His words should abide in me also. That is, His words ought to be totally at home in my mind and heart so I am filled with His thoughts and ideas. My actions should be a natural result of what He says, not what I or anyone else thinks or says. His words should rule my life because I’m completely surrendered and totally comfortable with them.
If all this is happening, of course He will answer my prayers. The desires of my heart will be the desires of His heart, conformed to His will as revealed in His words. I won’t be asking for things that would bring an automatic NO because God is in charge of my thinking and therefore everything I want will be what He wants.
This is a deep level of Christian living, a total surrender. It is happily residing in God and the will of God without thinking about who is living where, or even what to do next. God speaks, I hear His words, I do what He says, and He does what I ask. We dwell in this place in perfect partnership and harmony.
As I write these words, I know that I am not there yet. Wherever I live, whether the house fits my needs doesn’t matter much compared to this wonderful dwelling place that Jesus describes, a place where I dearly want to land, unpack and settle down for the rest of my days.
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