Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, or the attaining of all perseverance and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light- Colossians 1:10-12 NASB

I have a weird confession that will undoubtedly trigger a little judgment:

For pretty much all of my Christian life the book of John has not been my favorite gospel. TOO MANY WORDS. I get that it is the fan favorite of nearly every Christian in the history of Christianity. However, I have always been more of a Matthew girl. It’s just better suited to my personality and preferences. I’ve read through John a couple of times. It just hasn’t been my jam. I always figured that’s why there’s four gospels, everyone gets to have a favorite. 

Well. 

I made a commitment this year to get to know Jesus better. Part of getting to know Him better has meant reading through ALL the gospels as many times as possible throughout the year. It occurred to me that if I really get to know every story about Jesus I will (hopefully) glean some fresh insights regarding Jesus in the process. So, I’ve been reading through the book of John (again) and truth-be-told, this time around I have kind of fallen in love.  I judged John harshly. He’s wordy (which bugs me) but I have noticed some things I have never really noticed before. He is more mystical and transcendent in describing Jesus. He is also much more straight forward in describing all the sin and ickiness lurking in the hearts of the Pharisees and Sadducees (John 10:25-39, John 11:45-51). Nor does he pull any punches concerning God’s expectations of His people (John 16). I really like all that.

Anyhoo. 

This past week I got to John 15 and the passage on the vine and as a result I have done a lot of thinking about the whole notion of abiding in Christ. What does it mean? How do we do it? Are there things we can do to do it better? I am convinced abiding is not something that just happens. The text seems to indicate it is possible to be a regular church attender and Bible reader and still not abide in Christ. Abiding is a choice we make (John 15:4-11, Romans 11:21-22) and if we choose not to make that choice there are some severe spiritual and practical consequences (John 16:1). In order to abide we must:

Practice spiritual self-awareness-

Spiritual self-awareness means we wake up every day and make an assessment of our behaviors, attitudes and overall spiritual state (2nd Corinthians 13:5). Then we ask the Holy Spirit to show us what needs to change and how to make those changes (John 16:7-8). Spiritual self-awareness is more than just outward goodness. Spiritual self-awareness means we look deep within ourselves and admit we need growth and transformation even if we look okay on the outside.  Spiritual self-awareness means we do level best to know our own hearts so that we can conform more to the image of Christ in our thinking as well as our outward behavior (Romans 8:29, Colossians 3:10). Spiritually self-aware people see the little signs that indicate all is not well in the spiritual health department. Little signs spiritual health is slipping can include (but are not limited to) salty language, telling lies, harshness, judgment, insensitivity, too much worldly entertainment, a lack of willingness to forgive others and an increase of sinful behavior (Galatians 5:18-21, Colossians 3:5-10). If these signs become noticeable the first step is to repent. Repentance begins with admitting to God as well as ourselves that we have done wrong. When we repent, we ask God to give us clean hearts and right thinking. If our hearts our right and our thinking is biblical any desire to sin and wander will be greatly diminished. 

Allow the tough stuff of life to change us for the better- 

The entire end-goal of the Christian life is transformation (Romans 12:2, 2nd Corinthians 3:18). In order to transform we must willingly let go of attitudes and behaviors that keep us from becoming Christ-like. Jesus tends to use the tough stuff of life to reveal what needs to go and what needs to grow (Hebrews 12:10). Every pain we experience, every relational difficulty we encounter, every time we give into anger or some other baser behavior is an opportunity to ask Jesus what we can learn from the situation. Jesus will prune what needs to be pruned whether we ask or not,  but we get more out of the process if we choose to lean into it. 

And finally: 

When we abide we are intentional about seeking deeper relationship with Jesus daily- 

Jesus loves each of us so much that He doesn’t want to be a part of our lives. He wants to be all of our lives. Jesus is always near us. He is always seeking us out in order to cultivate deeper closeness and intimacy with us. Whether or not we have a close relationship with Jesus is up to us. When we learn to hear His voice willingly let go of the junk that holds us back we slowly but surely become holy in all we do (Isaiah 35:8, 2nd Corinthians 7:1, Hebrews 12:14, 1st Peter 1:14-16) Holiness is the key not only to truly abiding in Christ but also to finding true delight in living the Christian life.