February 13, 2006

PRECIOUSNESS OF REMAINING

I sensed the preciousness of losing and the need to dig into this and explore it with my heart. Here comes the next bit. We are encouraged to "remain". What does the dictionary say about remaining, apart from the obvious one we all know that means to stay in the same place? Well isnt it wonderful....it also means that when everything else has been subtracted or taken away there is something that will "remain"!!
In John 15 one of the instructions Jesus gives is to "remain in Me and I will remain in you." This gives a whole new meaning to standing on the rock, it is the one place that we can ALWAYS stay and nothing else can be taken away - I am beginning to get excited about this place which appears to be loss but is in fact the place of greatest gain.
Like the ads say...but wait, there's more...! Even if you miss out on the free knives and two items for one price, this is better than that.
Jesus says that if we remain in Him we will BEAR FRUIT. I can hardly bear it...this place of loss and nothingness, when filled with Him and His life, becomes a fruitful place, so something good that reproduces itself is going to come forth.
We are so limited in our human understanding, and if we stay in that place, relying on what we know and understand, we will never have these wonderful truths to get excited about. In the eyes of the world it is a total disaster to lose things and have what we own or love stripped away, but in the values of the Kingdom of Heaven it is the very place where it all starts to happen. These are the eternal values we are searching for, the very things that set us free and help us to be 'in this world but not of it' in the most active and amazing way.
Let's not be afraid to open our hands and our hearts, holding tightly to nothing except the ONE who has our life in His hands and will never let us go. Let us begin to REMAIN, in other words, to ABIDE in Him, and then all the amazing things promised to us in Psalm 91 begin to flow as never before. Wow, I am so overwhelmed with joy.

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