Key to Abiding

What is the secret? Be wholly occupied with Jesus.  Sink the roots of your being in faith and love and obedience deep down into Him.  Come away out of every other place to abide here.  Give up everything for the inconceivable privilege of being a branch on earth of the glorified Son of God in Heaven.  Let Christ be first.  Let Christ be all.  Do not be occupied with the abiding - be occupied with Christ.  He will hold you, He will keep you abiding in Him He will abide in you. - Andrew Murray

Focus on Christ.  Focus on Christ when sorrow overwhelms.  Focus on Christ when you are tempted to boast in your own "goodness."  Focus on Who Christ is when life and people are unfaithful. 

Christ is the key to abiding.

What is abiding?

To live in, study, meditate, memoriaze, His Word.  Let that Word live out in my daily life, especially as I show love to others.

"The Father, the Husbandman, watches over your union with and growth in the Vine.  You need be nothing more than a branch.  Only a branch!  Let that be your watchword; it will lead in the path of continual surrender to Christ's working, of true obedience to His every command, of joyjul expectancy of all His grace.  Is there anyone who now asks: "How can I learn to say this aright, 'Only a branch!' and live it out?"  Dear soul, the character of a branch, its strength and the fruit it bears, depend entirely upon the Vine...Therefore worship and trust Him; let Him be your one deisre adn the one occupation of your heart."
-Andrew Murray

Your Word is a Lamp to My Feet

How can a young person live a pure life?

By obeying Your word.

With all my heart I try to obey  You.

Don't let me break Your commands.

I have taken Your words to heart

so I would not sin against You.

Psalm 119:9-11

Because I love Your commands more than gold, more than pure gold,

And because I consider all Your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.

Psalm 119:127-128

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light for my path.

Psalm 119:105

God's word has become so precious to me in the past few months.  The more I read it, the more I want to memorize it.  I can hear God's voice more clearly when I am in His word.  I can have so much more patience when I've read the Bible.  I find I have that life-line to Him securely fastened as I meditate throuhout my day on His word. 

The key to abiding is God's word. 

It is how we abide - by staying in His word.

Hope in God

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance....
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the day time,
And in the night His song shall be with me -
A prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:5, 7-8

All you who put your hope in the Lord - be strong and brave.
Psalm 31:24

Happy are those who are helped by the God of Jacob.
Their hope is in the Lord their God.
He made heaven and earth,
The sea and everything in it.
He remains loyal forever.
Psalm 146:5-6

We all need hope.
Life takes us away from hope.
The world chokes out our hope.
Thankfully, we have hope in Somone who is:
In control of our life
And defeats the world!
He is the maker of heaven and earth!
He is the all-powerful God.
That is who we hope in.
Amazing.
Reassuring.
Comforting.
Wonderful.

O Lord, I hope in You today.  Let me stay close to You.  Make Your presence known to me to today, so that I may not dispair - but have hope!

Have hope, O my soul!
Hope in God.

Psalm 131

Psalm 131

Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty.

Neither do I concern myself with great matters,

Nor with things to profound for me.

Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul,

Like a weaned child with his mother;

Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord

From this time forth and forever.

"The Christian is 'not like an infant crying loudly for his mother's breast, but like a weaned child that quietly rests by his mother's side, happy in being with her.'...No desire now comes between him and his God; for he is sure that God knows what he needs before he asks him.  And just as the child gradually breaks off the habit of regarding his mother only as a means of satisfying his own desires and learns to love her for her own sake, so the worshipper after a struggle has reached an attitude of mind in which he desires God for himself and not as a means of fulfillment of his own wishes.  His life's center of gravity has shifted.  He now rests no longer in himself but in God."
Eugene Peterson

Merciful Savior

Sometimes we think so highly of ourselves - we are saved!  Yes, we once need a Savior with lots and lots of mercy - but now we are good.  We forget that we continue to fall and fail everyday!  Sometimes depression and despair will come into our lives as well.  Even, as Christians, we need God's mercy.  It wasn't just to be used once at our salvation, but an a daily basis.  These promises are for us, Christians, who were saved through His mercy, and who continue to live through His mercy.  

May we never stop asking for mercy!!

I love the Lord because He hears my voice
and my prayer for mercy.
Becuase He bends down to listen,
I will pray as long as I have bretah!
Death wrapped its ropes around me;
the terrors of the grave overtook me.
I saw only trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
"Please, Lord, save me!"
How kind the Lord is!  How good He is!
So merciful, this God of ours!
Psalm 116:1-5

The Lord upholds all who fall,
And raises up all who are bowed down.
Psalm 145:14

He who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;
And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Psalm 30:10-11

He Owns Each Day

Today is God's.  It is not mine.  It is His.  I want to spend it living and abiding in Him.  I want to not live as my own.  I want to live in obedience and trust that the One who owns this day will be with me and is guiding me.  Lord, help me rely on You today.  I need Your help not only on a daily basis, but a moment-by-moment basis.  Save me from my own selfishness and let me live in Your love today.  Amen.

Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered - how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment for You;
at best, each of us is but a breath.
We are merely moving shadows,
and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
not knowing who will spend it.
And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
My only hope is in You.
Ps. 39:4-7

He ask life from You, and You gave it to him -
Length of days forever and ever.
Ps. 21:4

For You, a thousand years are as a passing day,
as brief as a few night hours.
Ps. 90:4