If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
John 15:7 ESV
Abiding. How often do we genuinely abide in Chirst? Do we let His words abide in us? Or are we too busy even doing good things to take the time to stop and dwell on, and abide with Jesus? It’s is so easy to get caught up doing good things that we miss spending time with the one who makes the things worth doing. I heard Francis Chan speak on this recently. It was actually the one thing that he wanted prayer for when asked; to not lose his intimacy with Jesus because he is busy doing good things. This shows that this is a people problem, a problem that many (if not all) people face.
If the devil can’t stop you serving God, he will try to make you so busy that you don’t have time to spend with God.
I find that this is particularly true in our modern age with the rise of technology and bringing with it, 24/7 access to work and mind numbing distractions. One of my guilty pleasures is reading, something I did a lot of in my younger years and something I’m slowly returning to. I love to read historical books, particularly biographies and autobiographies. I love how they give an insight into what life was like in different eras and demonstrate to us God’s power and faithfulness in many different situations. One thing I notice when I read these sorts of books, is how seriously they take God. There is no room for anything but Church, God and family on Sunday; instead of television and work, weeknight dinners are followed by prayer and bible reading; and discipline was not only taught in homes but also demonstrated. This is not the way most Christians, let alone, people generally live anymore. We are so busy or distracted that we forget to be still, to abide.
I like the way this verse finishes too, it says when we are abiding in Christ, we can ask for whatever we wish and it will be granted unto us. I feel like these few words sum up all the theology on answering prayers very nicely. When we abide in Chirst and He in us, we pray prayers which are pleasing to Him so then they get answered. When we pray selfish and self – centred prayers we end up very rarely getting what we want because what we’re asking for is not in line with God’s plans and purposes and in many cases even detrimental to us. Think about it in the imagery of the parent child relationship, a parent wants the child to ask for good things and when the child asks for those things, the parent delights in giving those gifts. Whereas when a child asks for something dangerous or bad for them in some way (maybe excess candy etc) a good parent will not answer that request because it would be harmful for the child. How much more does an all-knowing and loving God give what is good and (mostly) withhold that which is bad. (I realise this is an incredibly simplistic summary and isnt anywhere near comprehensive so hopefully I’ll be able to write on this another time.)
I know I’ve said this a million times, but I’m so thankful for a God who wants to abide with us and calls us to abide with Him.
♡
Musings by Tee 