Posts Tagged ‘Abide’

With the new year upon us, we often take time to look back. It’s always good to look at where you have been and what we have learned from it. The new year is also a time to look forward, a time to think about where you are going. To be honest, I have struggled with that this week.

I have struggled with balancing what I want and what I need. Should I dream big or be realistic?  Do I set goals?  Do I make resolutions?  Is any of this even necessary? All of these questions are good ones and all of them serve a purpose. Goals and resolutions can help you stay focused. Weighing wants and needs is always healthy and we should probably dream big AND realistically! These are all things that I should probably access all the time instead of every January.

God says there is a better way, a way that eliminates the worry and disappointment of failure. Here is what the Bible says about plans:

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11

Trust me when I say God’s plans are far better than your own. His plans are pure of motive and when the guy who knows everything makes them I would bet that its gonna work out. God gives us a “future and a hope”, one we could not make up if we wanted to and the other, a purpose.

So if God has a plan for me, where is it? Is it downloadable? Is it hidden away in some secret archive or in some ancient manuscript that we haven’t discovered yet? Is it inside of me, waiting for some sort of self-discovery. The answer isn’t in any of these and can’t be found by you. In fact the plan for YOU has nothing to do with YOU!

4 “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.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.

John 15:4-5

To Abide means “to live within”. Far more than a relationship, Jesus desires for you to live within Him and for Him to live within you. If we do this, we will live out the plans that give us a “future and a hope” and we wont be limited by our own ideas. Jesus wants us to live for the moment within him, ready to do.

John 1 says that Jesus is the “Word” in skin. Therefore to abide in Jesus we have to read Him constantly. It’s more than a history book, more than a rule book, and more than church-going accessory. It is the story of Jesus from beginning to end. To know the Bible is to know Jesus.

I want you to read through the Bible with me. There are many ways to do it. There are methods and reading plans that can guide you through the Bible in many different ways.

God Bless you and Happy New Year

EF