Abiding

Last week was rough. My focus was horrible. I can’t point to one reason I was so downcast, but I can say that getting out of the hole could not have been done alone. All week I prayed for God to lift me from my slump, but it took me just about the entire week to see His answer. In a word: Abide. About Thursday, I “happened” to clicked on the “Notes” application of my Blackberry when I noticed the first entry I’d made, titled “Abiding.” Curious, I opened it, remembering that I had written it a couple months ago during a Bible Study. It was a definition of “Abide.” It read: “The continual act of laying aside everything that I might derive from my own wisdom and merit, in order to draw all this from Christ.” I was then reminded of the scriptural context for the definition: John 15, the most pertinent section, verse 5: "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Over the next couple days, God started showing me how my thoughts were getting in the way—thoughts that were keeping me from “abiding”—or “deriving wisdom and merit from Christ” rather than myself. As I write, I’m back on the path to praising Him, simply for who He is.

I’m not trying to be deep, but sometimes I get depressed about the human condition. We have so many sides that we often compartmentalize: We have our happy days; our bad and worse days; days somewhere in between. We can be so loving, yet so hateful. We’re so inconsistent. I know I am. In my spiritual walk, some days I am so full of praise; other days, so lukewarm—or without praise. The Word of God points out just how far from perfection we are without Him in Jeremiah 17: 9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” And Romans 3: 10-12 says, "As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.’ All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." On my own, I don’t just make mistakes—for every gain I make, I can never achieve perfection. I have my own human “law” of righteousness that will keep me in a failed repetitive state: striving, failing, achieving; striving, achieving, failing—or some other order of the three—until I die.

Morbid? Perhaps. But the explanation doesn’t end there. Providing a better-than-silver lining, Romans 3:21-26 continues:

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

It’s the salvation message that brings us all hope. We can have a new life in Christ, and though we still sin—make mistakes—2 Corinthians 3:18 says that once we accept Christ we are being transformed; Philippians 3: 12 that we are being made perfect--the process is incomplete, and, if we know Christ, we will eventually be perfected (Philippians 3: 13-14; 1 Corinthians 13: 9-12).

…so what do I do while I’m in this skin? In a verse (actually, two) it is Solomon’s conclusion after mulling the miserable state of man, found in Ecclesiastes 3: 13-14: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Coming full circle, that sounds like abiding!

One more thing…The commands that God gave Israel after delivering them from hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt are a reminder that our quest to Abide requires memorializing God’s blessings in our lives, so we never forget His faithfulness as we choose Him. Deuteronomy 6: 4-9; 20-25 explains it beautifully:

4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…
20 In the future, when your son asks you, "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?" tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the LORD sent miraculous signs and wonders—great and terrible—upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our forefathers. The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.

This blog entry is my memorial of God’s latest blessing to me: His constant forgiveness every time I lose my focus. I pray I—and you— Abide, and always.