abide

Abide. This was the great missionary Hudson Taylor's "spiritual secret." The secret to life abundant with Christ is one simple word: abide. Some Bible translations say "rest." How simple a discipline, right? Then why do I struggle with it so deeply? Everything in me wants to just do. There is a degree of merit to this, I think. We ought to want to do much for Christ- spiritual disciplines in our own lives; service to "the least of these;" etc. Yet I have a tendency to make these things, the "doing," the beginning and end of my spiritual life. I think, ideally, the doing ought to come in the middle. The beginning and the end ought to be abiding. The place I must start in my spiritual life is rest. Psalm 46:10- "Be still and know that I am God." Exodus 14:4- "The Lord your God will fight for you... you need only to be still." 1 John 2:28- "And now little children, abide in Him." This is where I must begin. Abiding in His steadfast love. In this place I will be filled with the Spirit as He abides in me, and through His simple presence, He drives out the darkness in my soul. From the overflow that happens from abiding, I am empowered to do. To meditate upon His Word. To pray. To be active in community. To use my gifts and experiences to serve. To love God. But all these things must come from a source, a source that we have when we abide. And then, I must come back to, or actually hopefully never leave, abiding. Psalm 116:7- "Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." I am finding that the key to life is one simple thing: abiding in the steadfast love of the Lord.