How to Abide in jesus
Is your relationship with God distant?
Have you been feeling beat up by the pressures of this world? Are you spiritually drained, and does the thought of church and service leave you feeling tired? What you need to do is feed on Jesus. That sounds strange, doesn’t it? Yet, Jesus talked about himself as the bread of heaven. He spoke about this in the Book of John.
John 6:53 - Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
Our natural, default state, is deadness. It is the same with our physical bodies. We have to eat to stay alive. If we don’t, our bodies begin to burn fat and muscle. After that our organs begin shutting down, and we die. In the same way, there is no real eternal, spiritual life in a person without feeding on Jesus.
To feed on Jesus means to abide in him.
Is it any wonder when we neglect our relationship with him that we begin to have spiritual withdrawal symptoms? We lose our purpose, grow spiritually cold, and become irritable, hard hearted, indifferent, self-centered, and miserable.
Jesus said he is our source.
John 6:55 - My flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink.
Therefore, it is no surprise that our lives grow empty and troubled when we stop feeding on Jesus. We need to treat Jesus’ body like food. That is what he said. We need to recognize not just physical hunger, but spiritual hunger. At those times we begin to lose faith. We trust in our own strength and wisdom. We worry, and become dissatisfied, because there is no food supplying our spiritual existence.
What we need to do is abide in Jesus. It is sort of like immersing yourself in a cool lake on a hot afternoon. It is like laying down to rest after a hard day. We give ourselves to the experience. We let it soak into us. Jesus spoke about us abiding in him.
John 6:56 - He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
To abide in Jesus, we immerse ourselves in his presence. Here is how we do that:
- We take time to read the Bible and think about it and meditate on what it means. This allows his words and wisdom to begin to grow in our thoughts and hearts.
- We spend time in prayer, speaking to him and stopping to listen for his voice. This allows his thoughts to enter our thoughts and hearts.
- In our decisions, we try to hear his voice and to do what he tells us to do. This allows us to put his instructions into action in our lives and to rest in his wisdom.
Doing these things is how our spiritual nature communes with his Spirit. This is how we dwell in his presence as we go throughout our day.
It is critical that we do this. We can’t treat God like a gas station. We can’t stop by to fill up and then go on our way till we are empty again. Instead, our relationship is more like an electric light. The moment we disconnect from the presence of God, deadness begins. Consider what Jesus said in John 6:57.
John 6:57 - As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
Did you catch that? Did you understand what he just said? We live by feeding on Jesus, in the same way that Jesus lives because of the Father! Even Jesus must continually abide in the Father. The Trinity of all that God is, Father, Son, and Spirit stays together in a perfect unity of abiding. Our lives, in the same way, are to continually draw upon the one source of life: God.
How do we do this? We ingest Jesus. We feed upon his life. We live by his words. We enter the Father’s presence in his forgiveness. We live each moment of our life connected to his presence. Don’t be deceived by the world. Our lives do not become full by our work, marriage, parenting, or wealth. These things satisfy in a fleshly way, but just for a moment. Only a connected life with Jesus can bring a real satisfaction that endures regardless of our circumstances. This is one of the main jobs of the Church, to help people to feed on the presence of God, to connect them to the source of life. Are you connected? Are you abiding in Christ?
- Bob Wilson (This article may be copied freely.)
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