Abide

Our journey with God has two components – a responsibility and a calling. We need to answer to both. Many are called but few are chosen – why is that? It all comes down to our response to the call. We need to take full responsibility for that which we have agreed to. Even when we do not understand many of the things happening to us because of the choice which we have made to follow God, we must never blame Him, but follow on in faith because we can trust Him that He is for us, cares for us, and helps us. We also need each other and we need to faithfully stand with each other and be connected to people who have already journeyed with God to learn from them. If we can cheer each other on, we will all walk a little bit further, longer, and better. Jesus is the true vine. When we are grafted into Him, we repeatedly get pruned to bear much fruit to God’s glory. Abiding in Him is to see, which means seeing and being aware of those around us, as well as God seeing us. Abiding in Him also means to follow Him and saying “yes” to His calling and willingly obeying His will. It is important to accept what God has called us for, hold on to that and acknowledge Him – reflecting His glory in everything that we do. When we abide in Him, we speak and walk differently. At all times our speech should be like incense rising unto God. When we abide, we praise differently, we love differently and pray differently. We are invited to totally belong to God, experiencing full intimacy and abiding and conquering by His love because in Him we live, move and have our being.