“I am the Vine, you are the branches: he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing”. John 15:5 ASV
Circumstances can be challenging, perhaps even appear impossible. But Circumstances are never the real barriers in our lives. Our mindset is. When problems come, and they will, how we think about the problems is what will determine victory or defeat. For instance, how much mental energy to we exert on the fact that the problem exists? “Why is this happening to me?”, “What did I do to deserve this?”, “What if this causes other, bigger problems?” Focusing on the circumstances is always a losing strategy.
This is why it is so important to “abide” in Jesus. Abiding is dwelling. Dwelling is setting up home base and settling in. Functionally, that means everything in that happens in our lives is viewed through the windows of this home base. Why is this so important? Because if we cannot take our eyes off the problem, we will never recognize the true opportunity God has for us. Jesus gave a practical example of this as he slept. On a boat. In the middle of a life-threatening storm. How could Jesus not see the danger? Because from the view from His home base, He was not in danger. In fact, it was a perfect opportunity to display the true peace, authority and power of heaven.
This is what it looks like to be part of an unshakable kingdom. Is this even doable? Apparently Jesus thinks it’s imperative. At some level, living that way is superhuman, but I think that is Jesus’ point. He’s got this, and we are in Him so we’ve got this. Dawn and I are in a season. That’s abide-speak for we are facing challenging problems. We’ve had big challenges before, and we’ll have them in the future. But I’ve learned that, as tempting as it is to see everything as overwhelming and let fear settle in, my reality is different. We are in no danger. Peace is our anchor. But best of all, there is an opportunity before us to display the authority and power of heaven. If you hear the sound of snoring, that’s just us abiding. Why don’t you join us?
