Recently, God impressed a single word on my heart: Abide. I’ve heard the word all my life, but I decided to look it up since I’d never given it much thought. According to Merriam-Webster, “abide” means “ to remain stable or fixed in a state.”

As I’ve been pondering this call to abide, I’ve also been reminded of Old Testament verses like “Be still and know that I am God,” (Psalm 46:10), and “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). This past season has been anything but quiet for me, with the publication of Hello, God and our recent trip to Central Europe. One event represents the culmination of a year of praying, writing, and seeking the Lord’s will, and the other is a continuation of how God’s healing enables us to travel internationally, something we once considered impossible. But in another sense, both events intensify the temptation to rely on my own strength, look away from the Lord, and measure my success by human metrics rather than God’s.

That’s why I think the Lord’s reminder to abide is so tender and timely, and I hope sharing it will encourage you as well. Summer can be a time for rest, but it can also be a time for running after even more activities than we pursue during the rest of the year. I’m becoming more and more convinced that being still in the Lord’s presence precedes truly knowing He is sovereign over every detail of my life in my heart as well as my head.

I also think that this theme of quiet confidence in God’s power ties in to Jesus’ sermon on abiding.  

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

John 15:4-8

Jesus’ words comfort me because the “abiding” he desires is not measured by anything I do on my own, like meeting the standards I set for myself or others set for me. Rather, to borrow the definition of “abide” I shared earlier, he’s looking for how stable I remain in reading his Word and in prayer. And if I am giving him preeminence in these ways, then I can trust that he will help me produce the fruit he desires. 

May we all continue to grow in our desire to be still, know, and abide this summer!