Hello. My name is Adam Knapp from All Peoples’ Church and I’m with you on God Today. I want to focus for a moment on what it means to abide in God. So often we hear that phrasing. It’s talked about in worship circles and prayer, and we’re told that we need to abide in Him. We have this idea sometimes in our mind, but never necessarily the actual understanding of what that looks like. We know that it comes out of John 15 and that God is the vinedresser and Jesus the vine, and we’re told to abide in Him and apart from Him, we can do nothing.
But what does it actually mean to abide in Him? And what does it look like when we’re not? You see, it’s something related to being fruitful. Jesus says that if we are fruitful by abiding in Him we’ll prove to be His disciples and bring glory to His Father. But the question is, what does it mean to abide? Is it just some idea? Is it proximity? Is it being close to Him? If you read further down in John 15, the conversation turns and Jesus says that if you keep My commandments, you’ll abide in My love. You see, it’s not about some feeling or some notion or some idea. It’s about walking in obedience and pursuing after Him.
And that’s how we remain in that posture of abiding. It’s not proximity based on feelings. It’s proximity based on obedience. And when we follow after Him and we pursue after Him and we listen to the leading of His voice, we know that we abide in His love and we become fruitful in Him. It’s the same thing that Paul speaks about in Galatians, where he says against such things, there is no law, speaking of the fruit of the Spirit.
So I want to encourage you today. Maybe the Lord has told you to do something and you’re nervous about it, or you’re not sure how it will go over, or you’re not sure how people will respond. Let me remind you. We’re called to abide in Him. That means to be obedient, step out in faith, trust that He’s going to help you and He’ll take care of the results because ultimately if He’s called you to do it, He understands what’s going to be the fallout and He’s going to strengthen you through it.
I just want to encourage you to make sure you’re abiding in the Lord. And I want to pray with you for a moment that the Lord will strengthen you and help you with that. Father, I ask that You would help those that are watching right now to lean into Your heart and to trust You that if You’ve given them commandments, that if You’ve given them things that You would like for them to do, that You’re going to assist them and that Your grace is going to empower them to be able to do those things.
Father, we talk so often about abiding in You and loving You, but I ask that of this generation that we would be those that would be obedient and that we’d show forth our love by following after You and allowing You to be Lord of our lives. Strengthen those now that are struggling with this in areas where maybe they have fallen or they failed and they feel like they can never get back up again. Lord, let them realize that all they need to do is begin to obey and abide. Lord, I thank You for what You’re doing for those that are watching and I pray this in Jesus’ name.