Abiding in Him

“What should I do?” “What if . . .?”  “If only I had . . .” “Maybe I should try  . . .” These are the kinds of questions and thoughts that take away sleep and sap energy. It can be maddening and exhausting to deal with such uncertainty.

A few weeks ago, I found myself with very similar thoughts running on a continuous loop in my head and making productive work impossible. Then somehow—by God’s grace—I thought of the truth of God’s Spirit in me. God will show me the answer, I thought. I need to trust that He is in control and will show me what to do. And so it was. The dilemma I was struggling with seemingly worked itself out. I found myself profoundly grateful for sweet people and their understanding ways, but so much more grateful for God’s love and care for me in those ordinary decisions that become so large in my everyday life.

Little by little these days, God is teaching me to rest and trust that he is there, that he will lead me as I submit my will to his. I have been re-reading Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray. It’s an old book, published in the nineteenth century, but its relevance never goes out of date. In a series of thirty-one meditations, designed to be read over the span of a month, Murray discusses what it means to live by Jesus’ word in John 15:

                Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the      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, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. . . .If you keep my   commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and   abide in his love.

I read this book years ago, and I am grateful that parts of it have stuck with me and that God uses them to guide my thinking. The following passage from page thirty-seven is what I think must have pulled emerged from the nooks and crannies of my mind when I was in that mental stew recently:

                And live, above all, day by day in the blessed truth that, as He Himself, the living Christ Jesus, is your wisdom, your first and last care must ever be this alone—to abide in Him. Abiding in Him, His wisdom will come to you as the spontaneous outflowing of a life rooted in Him. I am, I abide in Christ, who was made unto us wisdom from God (I Corinthians 1:30); wisdom will be given   me.

What a blessing! There is much more I could say about this wonderful little book and what God is teaching me, but I'll save something for another day. Have a great week abiding in Him.

 

--Sherry Poff