Abiding

August 15, 2016

Devotions:

He dwells in you, do you dwell in Him? What does it mean to dwell in Him or as the King James Version says, to abide in Him?

        When we recognize ourselves in the light of what He has done to us and for us then we are abiding in Him.  When we do not accept what the world says about us, or what our friends or relatives say about us when it contradicts the word of God or what our experience says about us but we choose to believe only what the word of God says about us then we are abiding in Him.

        The word of God says that we are righteous so we should cast down thoughts and ideas that say that we are unrighteous.  Righteousness is the ability to come in to the presence of the King of Kings without fear, guilt, condemnation or sin because all of that was dealt with by Jesus on the cross.  God wants to transform us by His glory. We cannot do it by our effort but even as we could not cause ourselves to be born again but we could choose to accept it by His grace or reject what He did for us we choose to receive His transformation or reject it. When we reject His grace we are hardened by sin and sin does its work of stealing, killing and destroying. 

        Dwelling in Him means that we are dwelling in His forgiveness. We do not beg and plead with God for Him to forgive us. Forgiveness is a gift freely given to all.  To dwell in Him is to dwell in His righteousness, another free gift that Jesus already bought and paid in full for us.  Dwelling in Him is to dwell in His work of holiness which Jesus died to provide for us.  We cannot earn or merit these gifts but we are to heed His call to abide in Him as He abides in us.  Our response to these gifts is praise and thanksgiving for what our God has done for us.