To Abide – What does it mean to you?
Abide is a word, I think we are familiar with since we hear it a lot and read about it in the bible. As I step into leadership, one piece of advice I received was to abide in the Lord. When I heard this, I kind of knew what it meant but did I really?
What does it look like to abide and how do we abide?
While worshiping the Lord on the first day of debrief, I read John 15:4-10. The word abide (or remain depending on the version) is used 10 times. No doubt the apostle John is trying to point out the importance of abiding in the Lord. Again, I thought how does that look for me and how do I remain in God.
John 15:4-10
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
While listening to the Lord and reflecting on my last 8 months of the race, I started to realize that abiding is where I put my attention. It also includes trust because if you trust God you will run to Him in the hard times and choose to stay in that secret place with Him.
You choose to abide in whom you trust the most.
As I thought about that statement, I asked myself a few more questions:
Do I try to figure out the situation on my own and worry about it or do I give it to God?
Do I turn to God in prayer and worship or focus on what is happening in front of me?
Do I turn over control to God or try to do it on my own?
Yeah, it was hard at first, however the Lord has been teaching me how to rely and trust Him. It is hard to release the control of things yet it is the best thing to do. We can release control to God and choose to stay in His presence. We can choose to abide in Him and let Him lead us.
I love that I can run to God especially in the times I don’t know what to do and choose to abide in his presence. There, I let Him speak to me and tell me what to do. That removes all the worry and gives me the confidence to face what is in front of me.
For me, to abide means where I put my attention and to whom do I trust. Which is God – I chose to run to Him in prayer, worship and reading His word.
Here are some questions for you:
Where do you choose to abide in the hard time / situations?
Here are some pictures from Debrief
Here is my wonderful team! It was so much fun getting to hang out with them
So thankful that these women are in my life
Azerbaijan is a beautiful country and it look similar to Europe
It was like a little Europe full of beautiful people
This is the street we lived off of
This was the wonderful breakfast we got every morning at debrief
That moment you asked for a burger and the meet was smaller than the hamburger bun
I loved all the worship we had at debrief and so proud of Heidi for leading
