By Dennis Pollock
The concept of abiding in Jesus has been a huge part of my life for almost as long as I have been a Christian. I discovered the abiding chapter, John 15, early on in my Christian life, and I have been almost obsessed with abiding ever since. In those early days, I was passionate about being useful and fruitful in my service to Christ. One day I read these words: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).
I felt like I had found my answer to a fruitful life. From that day on, I have made a study of the abiding life: how to abide, how to abide more perfectly, what specific ways and means are available to us to help us abide in Jesus.
Not all Bible versions use the word abide. Some say remain, and that is essentially the meaning of abiding. We come to Christ, and we remain in Christ. Once we arrive, we stay put. At its most basic level, to abide in Jesus means that once you receive Jesus and put your faith in Him, you never depart from Him. You do not backslide, you do not fall away, and you never stop looking to Jesus, trusting in Jesus, and depending on Him. We are to be trees of righteousness, planted firmly in Christ Jesus, never moving. One thing we can say about trees – they never change locations. If you plant them in a certain place, you can come back twenty-five years later, and if someone has not chopped them down, they will be in precisely the same place where you planted them. They do not walk, run, or hop. Rabbits hop, crickets hop, kangaroos hop, frogs hop, but we never see a hopping tree. They can be chopped down, they can die from lack of water, but they can never move. They “abide” in the soil where they have been planted.
This is abiding. You are a Christian today, you will be a Christian tomorrow, and ten years from now, twenty years from now, fifty years from now, if you live that long, you will still be trusting Jesus, loving Jesus, and serving Jesus.
Not Planning to Backslide
When I first discovered John 15, backsliding did not seem to be a big issue for me. I loved Jesus, read my Bible, prayed, went to church, and had no intentions of walking away from my Savior or changing religions. So, I did not read this chapter and say to myself, “I guess I’d better not backslide and turn away from Jesus!” But when I looked at the importance of abiding, I came to realize that there is a secondary meaning of abiding in Jesus that goes deeper than simply, “Don’t backslide.” I came to see the need to abide throughout each day, staying in touch with the Lord in the morning, noon, and night.
Before then, I had set up a devotional routine that almost always happened in the mornings. It was in the mornings that I would pray and spend time in the Scriptures. I thought of this as my devotional time. But after that time, I would go about my day without thinking much about the Lord, without praying (unless in an emergency or at dinner time), and without reading any more in the Bible. I had had my time with God; now it was time to work and do real life. It was as though I was saying to God after my morning time with Him, “Goodbye Lord. I’ve got a lot to do today, but I will see you again tomorrow morning, same time, same place.”
But when the Lord began challenging me about the abiding life, He revealed that this was not enough. And as I looked through the Scriptures to investigate this deeper level of abiding, I found many Biblical verses and passages that speak of this. One example of this is found in Psalm 1. David describes the blessed man who does not walk in the “counsel of the ungodly.” But then he declares how the blessed man or woman lives, writing: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2). He does not say that this blessed man meditates on the Lord every morning, but “day and night.” There is a continual communing with God and His word throughout the day. And then he declares that such a man will be “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3).
Here is the essence of abiding. This man or woman is planted, they do not hop, they do not jog, and they do not walk. They are planted near an abundant source of life-giving water. And they just stay right where they are and keep soaking in the water hour by hour and day by day. They are fruitful, their leaves are always green, and whatever they touch prospers and is blessed. Wow! What Christian would not want this kind of life? This description of the blessed man in Psalm 1 is an Old Testament parallel to John 15.
Our Job Description
Often, when you start your first day at a new job, your boss will sit down with you and give you your “job description.” You will learn exactly what your responsibilities are, and if your boss is wise, you will have no doubts about what is expected of you. In the Psalm 1 passage, the “job description” for this tree is incredibly simple. He has been planted by the rivers of water, and his number one duty is to stay planted. He dared not try to remove himself from where he was planted. He is to remain exactly where he is, and drink in the sun, soak in the water, and allow time and God to grow him into a fruitful tree.
And that is exactly our duty in Christ. We have been planted in the Fountain of living waters. It is our job to remain in fellowship with Jesus and with the Father throughout each day, month, and year. God told Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night…” (Joshua 1:8). Here again we have the idea of continual fellowship with God – day and night. The Bible says of Daniel: “And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” (Daniel 6:10).
Morning devotional times with the Lord are good, and if you are doing this, you are probably doing better than most Christians. But they are not enough. We need to check in with God throughout the day. A little time in the word over our lunch hour, sneaking away from the family for a brief time in the evening to feed on His word and tell Him what is on our heart – this is the deeper aspect of the abiding life. No, we cannot pray and read the Bible 24/7. God would not expect us to. But neither can we ignore God all day long and expect that the rivers of living water are going to flow freely and abundantly into our lives. Through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has made Himself available to us. Let us come before His presence throughout each day and night, pausing from our busyness to fellowship with Him and to draw on the divine rivers. It will be time well spent.
