Abide

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you”.   John 15:7

Abide – The Greek word used here is meinete.  It can be translated as remain, persevere, stay, continue or abide.  It occurs 118 times in the New Testament, 40 of which are in the Gospel of John.  The word borrows a context from the Old Testament where God is portrayed as consistently faithful and steadfast in His commitment to men.  This consistency is made evident in sending His Son as the redeemer.

In John’s Gospel, the idea is expanded to indicate the closest possible relationship between God the Father and the Son.  This verse extends the same relationship to those who believe in Jesus as the Christ.  In other words, the same harmony and fellowship that Jesus experienced with the Father is offered to Jesus’ followers.  This unity of wills is the basis for the promise offered in the verse.  St. Augustine said, “Love God and do as you please”.  The key is to love God, for if we truly love God, what we are pleased to do is His will, not ours. 

In this verse, Jesus simply says that the deep spiritual fellowship that is available to us will not only change our desires about life but will enable us to ask for those things that God wants and we want.  Our addicted lives held us captive to fantasy fulfillment.  Of course, the fantasy could never be fulfilled because the addict always wanted more.  Here Christ promises the true reality fulfillment, but unlike our fantasies, these desires will come to be.  Surrender teaches us that God can do what we could never do.  Now God offers what we could never find – the desires of our hearts – desires that we kept buried under the tyranny of the sin – desires for love, freedom, wholeness and giving.  The best of living is what we always wanted.  But all we knew was that we could not find it.  That’s because we never let God show us what was best for us.  Now Christ tells us that the closest possible fellowship with Him will fulfill our lives and we will find what we always looked for – purpose.