Beyond the Front Door

Jesus tells us that we must abide in him in order to bear fruit, in order to be transformed into his likeness. But what does this mean? What in the world, what in this crazy, busy, distracting world does it mean to abide in Jesus? Abiding in Jesus simply means making your home in him. Home. Where you live, dwell. Most often, home involves people even more than a place. Your people. The people with whom you are safe and joyful and comforted. The people with whom you live your mundane kind of life as well as those to whom you cling when trouble comes. Even for those who have never experienced this caliber of home, the ideal still powerfully draws the heart. Home. Abiding means this: To be filled up with God. To be awake to his presence every moment. To be still and know him in the same way that we are known. This is what we are desperate for in this chaotic world: an inner peace and joy that remains in us as we begin to look more like Jesus. This is what God promises us as we learn to abide in him.