Five Ways to Abide in Christ
Five Ways to Abide in Christ
My husband planted an apple tree but we’ve never eaten the apples. Back when our children were very young my husband and I lived in a beautiful two-story brick home. We loved that home. We brought three of our five children home into that house. It has a fantastic yard and a quiet street. The house was our home.
One summer my husband found a company that sold apple trees and you could get it delivered through the mail in order to plant in your own yard. Our area of the country does great with apple trees. This specific type of tree was one his grandmother used to have growing up. She would talk about how big the apples were and so juicy! He decided to plant it.
Little did we know that we would eventually move away from that house and never taste those apples. We do know the family who moved into the house, but we have not asked to taste the apples. Maybe one day we will.
Trees vs. Vines
The other day I was talking with a friend and she talked about growth. As she spoke about it, I realized that the growth she was describing wasn’t like an apple tree but a vine. The purpose of planting and growing an apple tree is to get the fruit. Some plants are grown simply because they produce fruit.
I have a plant I got a little over a year ago for my living room. That plant is a vining plant. I hung it in my window from a hook attached to the ceiling. In just a little under two years it has grown all the way to the floor. It does not produce flowers or fruit. It is simply a green plant with leaves. This is my favorite plant.
Spiritual Growth
Our growth, especially our spiritual growth, is more like a vining plant than a fruit tree. The passage in John 15 is clear about this: abiding in Christ is like a vine, not a tree. We do not grow bigger and stronger so we can produce fruit. We grow longer, and the longer we grow the more dependent we are on the Source.
I hope this is an encouragement to you because it is for me. Although John 15 also talks about bearing fruit, we have to remember we are not really the source of the fruit, we are simply instruments to hold the fruit. One would not look at a grape vine and say, “Wow, those branches are growing such great fruit!” We would hardly even notice the branches.
Tweet ThisInstead, we would praise the vine. Do we remember to praise the True Vine? I don’t want to be responsible for the fruit, but I’ll gladly bear it for my Savior. He is the true source of love, joy, and peace in my life. When we realize that it is the Vine’s fruit (and not the branches’ fruit) we can also rest and relax.
Abiding Helps Us Become More Like Christ
Growth is about connecting more and more to the Vine. What is this exactly? It is discipleship. Becoming more like Christ is the abiding. I love this quote by Oswald Chambers:
Discipleship has no impulsiveness in it….We don’t need the supernatural grace of God in order to weather crises; human nature and pride are sufficient for that. But we do need his grace in order to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a child of God, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We think that we have to do exceptional things for God, but this isn’t true. We have to be exceptional in ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, and this isn’t learned in five minutes.
How do we do this? We abide! Here are five ways to abide:
Five Ways to Abide in Christ
- Daily abiding in God’s Word. Read God’s Word! We should never neglect Bible study. It is our life-line to God. Do you want to hear from God? Read His Word. The Bible is God speaking to you! – 2 Timothy 3:16
- Daily abiding in prayer. Pray! Speaking to God is one way to keep the communication going. We listen by reading His Word and then we respond. We can pray and connect with God! – 1 Thessalonians 5:17
- Daily abiding in silence. Be still! I’ve taken to just being still at some point in my day. I don’t think or pray or do anything. I just stop what I am doing and just sit there. Sometimes I might take the dog on a walk, but I empty my mind of thoughts as best I can and just be still. – Psalm 46:10
- Daily abiding in meditation. Think about God’s Word. It isn’t enough just to read God’s Word, we need to be constantly thinking about it. If we read our Bibles but then walk away and don’t think about them again, then it was pointless! Meditating on God’s Word means to just think about it. – Joshua 1:8
- Daily abiding in faith. Believe God’s Word. Once again, just reading, praying, and meditating on God’s Word is amazing and good, but we as we think about abiding, we also need to add that we need to believe it. We can read, think, and dwell on God’s Word, but if we are not trusting it to be true, we will stumble. Faith is the key! – Hebrews 11