To be able to truly abided in a place, I believe you need to be at rest in the place. I see rest as a condition or state of your spirit, soul and physical body were as to abide is a position or location. As we begin to strive for that rest, we will gain it and that rest will make it easier for us to abide in Jesus.

When I first move into a new house or apartment, for a time I just dwell there. I will get comfortable with all the new sounds and routines, I then learn to rest in the new surroundings, obtaining restfulness. Then one day it clicks, it goes from a house to a home, from a place to rest to a place of abiding.

When anyone accepts Jesus as there Lord and Savior, they have to learn how to rest in Him, then they can truly abide in Him. Jesus has called us to abide in Him.

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. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 15:4-11 ESV

When a branch is graphed into a vine, the vinedresser does not expect the branch to produce right-away but to rest, until the branch and the vine merge as one. Then the branch is abiding in the vine and the vine in the branch. You have become one and to be divided from the source will cause death/loss.

Jesus is our source and if we decide not to rest and abide in Him we will wither and die. Unlike an actual branch, we have a choice to attach (rest) and abide in Jesus our source. This is the only way to produce Godly fruit is by being attached to the source of life and nurturance.

When I was growing up I abided in my mother and father’s house. I knew that I could ask for things and my parents would provide what I needed. I had an instinct to know what my parents would and could do for me, so I never asked for items that were out of their desires or abilities. All of these needed items were out of abiding. I was abiding in their home as well as in their love. My friend did not have the same ability to ask my parents, because they were not connected (abiding) to the same source.

My older brother was not living with us from the age of sixteen. My father and brother were not able to agree on any things, causing great disagreement in the house. My brother did not want to follow my father’s rules, so my brother moved out. My father still loved him and provided some things for him, but not to the fullness of the other that abided.

Now that we know the importance of abiding how do we abide in God? The verses in John 15 also show us how to abide in His love, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love”. We are to keep His commandments as well as the Fathers. Jesus summed up the entirety of his teachings as well as all the commandments of the scriptures in Matthew 22.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:36-40 ESV

Within the Old Testament, there are 613 commands which include the 10 commands, wherein the New Testament there is over 1000 commands that Jesus and the disciples express. Out of the 1613 plus, there are many overlapping commands so we have about just over a thousand commands. Jesus made it much easier to remember and walk them out by expressing it into two commands. If we obey these two we will eventually be able to walk out all thousand commands that allow us to truly abide in Him.

Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

1 John 2:28

From this level of abiding we are able to receive the fullness of joy His joy. Form the verses I quoted above ends with, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”.

Rest leads to abiding and from abiding we receive joy.

APPLICATION

• What are you doing to find rest in Him?
• What do you need to so to abide in Him?
• What is stopping you from receiving His joy?