Abiding

The verb abide has often confused me, not in the meaning of it, but in the doing.  Defined as to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): - abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for).  It simply  means don’t move.  That part is not difficult.  What is difficult is doing the abiding, the staying.  For instance, when Jesus says, “Abide in Me and I in you,”   I wonder what that would like like and how it plays out.  Because Jesus is not a place, He is God who is not physically present with us, just how do I abide?

I came across a passage in Exodus that helped me understand, a bit better, what abiding looks like.  It says this: “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.  You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. “ Exodus 12:21-22

Commanded by Moses to paint the doorframe of their homes, the people are then to remain inside the home, to abide in the home.  Remaining inside a house with lintels painted in blood affords them protection from the death that is without.  Inside is life, outside is death; inside there is hope of deliverance, outside is misery; inside is community in the ritual meal, outside is collective sorrow for  the deaths in every Egyptian home.    Those who were abiding were sheltered from all the terror around them. 

The people were protected from the punishment God meted out to Egypt; they were spared the sorrow and the horror of the unknown.  All this came about because they remained, they abided in their homes. 

Picturing this gave me a better understanding of how abiding plays out in my life.  To remain in Jesus, to remain in the relationship which He has begun with me means knowing what that relationship is and Who He is.  It means listening to Him and talking to Him.  My role is to learn of Him, from Him, even as He has told us; “Take My yolk upon you and learn from Me…” Matt 11:28.

Some of the things that belong to those who are abiding in Jesus are listed in the first chapter of Ephesians, and it is a glorious catalogue!   We are told that in Christ we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  What does that mean?  I am not sure, but it sounds good to me!  Next we learn that we are chosen.  Have you ever been left out, or that last one picked for a team?  You can endure that a bit better knowing that you were picked out by God before the world even began.  God had His eye on you, being one who abides in Jesus.  What were we chosen for?  We were chosen to be holy and blameless.  I know myself pretty well and I know that I am not holy at all and far from blameless, but being in Christ changes that because it is Christ who stands in for me, His life is now mine.   The next thing in the list is the fact of our adoption as children of God.  We have a new family, a new name, a new home.  And this is all because we are in Christ.

The list goes on to include redemption, forgiveness, knowledge, an inheritance.  How much more can we receive?  How marvelous is it that abiding in Jesus provides so many great gifts.  Yet think what we are protected from when we remain in Him.

We do not have to bear our own sin before the holy God of the Universe. We are protected from the just punishment of our sin and treachery.  We are no longer on the outside where the danger lurks, we are in Christ, in the new home, with the new Father.

We are not helpless before the enemy of our souls, but have all we need to stand firm before a defeated enemy. 

We are not in ignorance any longer about the truth of God and love and reality.  We are walking with eyes that see truly now and a mind that is the mind of Christ.

We are not in fear any longer.  There is no need to dread what happens because we are in Christ and He has promised to be with us through all things. 

We are not striving to prove ourselves because in Christ we are made new, we are accepted because of Him, not because of what we are or can do.  We are freed from the chains of performance and loosed to joy.

All this and more is ours because we are abiding in Jesus. As we remain in the close relationship to our Lord, we gain what we could never earn.  We fulfill the destiny for which we were made.   He asks us to take on His yoke and learn from Him.  Yoked to Jesus, remaining in that relationship, walking with Him and seeing His ways and what He gives to us simply because He loves us that is abiding.    Yes, I think staying in the house with the blood painted doorframe is a plan, because that is where life is.