And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 1 John 2:28 (NIV)

PART 2 – Abide

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Now that we have been reborn, abide.

Abide means to “continue, endure, remain and stay. Someone who does not leave the realm or sphere in which he finds himself – to take up permanent residence or to make one’s self at home.”

A lot of the time, ‘abiding’ is attributed to performing. Living (read ‘behaving') righteously. All the time. Doing the right thing. Every. Single. Day….

Apart from being exhausting, it's actually impossible. Just today, I was researching some scriptures and I came across some verses about loving your enemies… And I thought “Yes! That's right! That’s what I believe in DOING! I’m going to write about that!” I kid you not, 10 minutes later I saw something on Facebook that made me angry at this particular person and I was not thinking “love thy neighbour” thoughts… haha!!

“We all like sheep have gone astray…” right? (Isa 53:6). Our righteousness doesn’t come from our works, it was a gift bought for us by Christ, given to us by the Father.

Paul wrote to the Philippians,

“Yet indeed I also count all things a loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith…” (Phil 3:8-9).

“That I may gain Christ and be found in Him” – sounds like “abiding”… to make yourself at home in the presence and awareness of Christ. It’s not about perfection. It’s a place of humility and growth, learning and maturing… faith and forgiveness. Having your eyes open.

Christ opens our lives up to God, bringing us to a place of rebirth we’re we don’t have to work to gain our salvation. We are born into it by faith. And by faith we live in an ever-changing world, in a body that will experience many ups and downs, in circumstances that we can’t predict, but never leaving the heart and love of God.

It’s the family home. Our original origin.

You make yourself at home in God just by being at home. It's like driving in the driveway, getting out of the car, unlocking the front door and going inside. Don't turn off that awareness in dark times, euphoric moments, during confusion, or in the middle of the mundane… but lean in, stay awake and aware, engaged in prayer and connected by faith.

Abide.

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