ADVENT - “Abiding Love”
Happy Thursday, and welcome back to our Advent Meditation series, where we're spending the days leading up to Christmas reflecting on Jesus Christ and the hope His arrival and eventual return brings us. This week, our time together will focus on the promises of Jesus and how they provide us with enduring hope, unshakable security, and a peace that passes all understanding. Rest for our souls, the burden of worry lifted, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. These are some of the unfathomable and gracious promises Jesus declared over us. Yet, to experience the depth of these promises requires us to embrace another - Christ’s abiding love. It serves as the source we draw from over and over again - knowing it never returns empty. But, what does it look like to abide in the promise of Christ’s love? This is what we want to explore during our time together. But, before we begin, I want to provide space for you to consider how connected you feel to Christ, realizing that He never leaves or forsakes us - and any distance you feel is self-imposed. Then, pray and declare your needed dependence on Him.
In our fast-paced, instant-fix, and distracted culture, the long road of our heart's transformation process feels foreign and awkward, leaving us unsettled and restless. We want our growth to take place instantly, our problems solved with a snap of a finger, and our circumstances to always work in our favor - our prayers responded promptly and on time.
If Christ can't get on our schedule, we instinctively stop abiding in Him and take matters into our own hands. We work harder at solving my problems and getting my life back on track. We rely on my strength and wisdom. We push our agenda and try to force our hand while placing the world's weight on our shoulders. Knowing our tendencies, Jesus gives us this promise in John 15:
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Many of us seek a transformation we can't accomplish alone. We might be able to change our behavior, but we cannot mend our hearts. We focus on behavior. God focuses on the heart, so we must position ourselves to focus and depend on God's work in our lives. God doesn't help those who help themselves. God helps those who abide in Him, those who walk with Him in faith. Our efforts never prompted God's transforming grace. So, they won't be what leads to our transformed hearts either. Our efforts are not the source of the change we are after; they can't be. Instead, they get us in a position for God to change us. As we pursue God, we live out who we're supposed to be – image-bearers. The changes in our character are not a matter of pure self-will but a by-product of walking with God. It's at the end of ourselves that God can begin to do the much-needed work inside our hearts.
Scripture says that the joy we crave resides in only one place - abiding in Christ. The time it takes to abide in Him speaks to not only the quantity of the investment but the quality as well. Abiding involves staying put when our circumstances don't change. Abiding entails slowing down, praying, and paying attention. Abiding provides the security needed to open up every part of our hearts to Him. Abiding occurs when we're willing to let Christ speak into those places and transform our character. Abiding in Christ happens daily and goes on as long as air is in our lungs. Rather than check out, God is asking us to engage.
REFLECT
Before we wrap up our time together, we want to provide you some space to respond to what we read and maybe to what God is trying to say to you. First, take a moment to process this question…Where are you reluctant to abide in Christ? What causes you to be antsy and resist being still?
Another question to consider is this…Why does Christ need to speak into this area of your heart
PRAYER
Father God, apart from You I can do nothing. I will remember this truth as I go about my day. Regardless of the demands placed on me and what is going on around me, I will take time to be still and abide in You. Rather than rush, may I rest, reflect, and then respond. Help me to trust the transformation process. Give me the endurance to continue to abide in You when things get challenging. Speak to the areas of my heart that remain off-limits so I can bring them to You fully confident You will transform them. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.