Abiding in Christ

This week, let’s meditate on John 15. First, read it. Then stop on a verse that stands out to you, and begin a conversation with God about it. Ask questions. Tell Him your thoughts. As you ramble on, the Holy Spirit will begin to direct your thoughts. He may bring to mind other verses. (That’s when the concordance in the back of your Bible comes in handy!) He will bring greater understanding of what He wants to say to you through that Word. You will begin to receive personal revelation regarding God’s heart, His purposes, and your place in them. When you have received revelation, begin to pray about it, asking God to make it real in your heart and life.

Try journaling your conversation with God. Next week, we’ll share some of what God has shown us. Here is an example from my journal to help get you started. (The parts in quotes are the parts where I feel Jesus is directing my thoughts to greater understanding of Him and His Word. Of course, they are not scripture, except where scripture is quoted. This is just my way of making the conversation real.)
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If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love. (John 15:10)

How can I abide in Your love? By keeping Your commandments as You obey Your Father’s commandments. What are Your commandments? They are Your words – the Word. They are also Your Spirit whispering direction, instruction, conviction, etc. How do I receive Your commandments? By spending time with You, in prayer and the Word, learning of You, eating of You, filling myself with You until Your heart becomes my heart. And it becomes a continual conversation of love and obedience.

“Daughter, I love you!”

I love You! I can hardly believe or understand that You love me.

“I love you! You are precious and beautiful to me. I am completely pleased with you.”

My heart is full! Fill me even more with Your love until it overflows. Use the overflow to pour out your love to others. Use me, Lord!

“I am using you. As you draw close to Me, I am using you to draw others as well. As my love overflows in your heart to others, it pools around your feet and theirs. It becomes the substance of your life. Then you are abiding in My love! You are obeying the command I gave you: to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ (John 15: 12, 17). You cannot love that way in your own strength, not the kind of love that lays down your lives for one another (15:13). But as you dwell in Me and I dwell in you, I strengthen you to obey me more, and the cycle of love increases continually.”

Help me obey You. I want to drink, breathe, eat, and dwell in Your love. Remove impatience, irritability, and self-interest far from me. Protect me by Your love.

“If you live in Me and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you (15:7).”

(I just asked Jesus to help me obey Him, to deliver me from temptation, and to protect me by His love. Is this His reply to me? Did He just essentially say, “As you wish,” as Wesley said to Buttercup in The Princess Bride?! What love! It melts my heart.)

Let Your words remain in me and bear much fruit. Be glorified in me! I want to be a true follower of You (15:9). Teach me how to keep your words in me. Let them become my thoughts and desires. Conform me wholly to Your words. Show me what to ask for so that I may receive all You have for me, and so that I may see all You desire to accomplish in the lives of others as well. Unite us in love for each other. Make us one in joy as together we experience true, life-giving fellowship with You.
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Don’t be afraid of saying the wrong thing. The Lord loves the simplicity of our desire for Him that we would come before Him and begin to ask what He means in His Word. He will meet us when we are motivated by love for Him and not just by a desire for intellectual knowledge. We can check our thoughts by comparing them to scripture. I get excited when more and more scriptures begin to come to mind and confirm what I feel He is showing me, because then I know I’m on the right track!

I’m going to go meditate on John 15 again right now! I can’t wait to hear what He shows you as well.

(Note: The above is not necessarily representative of my daily devotions. It is representative of how I converse with God when I am meditating on a passage. However, what I write in my journal is often much shorter and not necessarily as inspired.)