“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “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.
-John 15:4-5
A B I D E.
God placed this word on my heart before I had even heard about the race. I remember reading it in my bible and knowing there was a deeper meaning to it, but never taking the time to pray and ask God what he was trying to tell me through this simple word. It’s crazy just how much our culture and language has watered down the true meaning of abide.
If you google the definition, this is what pops up:
Abide: to accept or act in accordance with (a rule, decision, or recommendation).
For the longest time, this was all I thought the word meant. To abide simply means to follow a rule right? Maybe from the world’s standard, but to abide by God’s standard? It goes much deeper than that.
After doing some research I found that there are actually FIVE different words in the original Greek and Hebrew for the word that means abide in English.
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Epimeno– to persevere; to stay with; this is a strengthened word of another word (meno) which means intensive.
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Katameno– constant residence; frequent resort; to remain permanently.
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Parameno– to continue; to remain beside; continue always near; sometimes used to express confidence in abiding.
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Hupomeno– to remain; not to recede or flee; under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one’s faith.
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Prosmeno– to remain still; to tarry.
Every single one of these words is what it truly means when we are asked to abide. The root of these words comes from “meno” which means intensive or passionate. When God tells us to abide, he wants us not only to obey him, but to do so with passion and intention. When He asks us to “abide” in Him, he asks us to abandon everything else, even when everything in our life is going wrong, even when the rest of the world is leaving us behind, he asks us to STAY; to PERSEVERE; to remain STEADFAST; to CONTINUE; to be STILL in that perseverence; and to do all of the above with passion. To abide in something is to have the highest level of loyalty and ultimately, the highest level of love for something.
This single word has transformed how I think about loving God. This single word also shows how much God loves us! God tells us to abide in him, but he also says that he abides in US. God is the perfect example of truly abiding in someone, because he shows us how every day. God is constantly seeking after us, persevering through all of our trials, and remaining there with upmost loyalty and passion.
To TRULY abide in Christ, is to love Him like He loves us every single day.
Thank you for reading! Please keep me in your prayers as I continue preparing for the next nine months.
– Much love, Abi <3
