Devotion 10 - Joy Through Abiding in His Love
Jn 15:9-11 - “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
To “abide” is a verb. It is active. Abiding in Christ is not just a feeling or a belief, but something we do. It implies connection, dependence and continuance. Jesus gave His disciples one of His most vivid and powerful illustration of abiding - the vine and branches.
Jn 15:5 - “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
But what does it mean for us to experientially “abide” in Jesus as branches in the vine?
Connection - A branch is connected to the vine, and a vine to the branch. Another word to describe is union with Christ. Thus, this connection is mutual. We abide in Him and He abides in us.
Dependence - The branch derives its life and power from the vine. Without the vine, the branch is useless, lifeless, powerless. Sap flows from the vine to the branch, supplying it with water, minerals, and nutrients that make it grow. We are completely dependent upon Jesus for everything that counts as spiritual fruit. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.
Continuance - The word “abides” in Greek means to remain, or stay, or reside continually.
In Jn 15:9-11, Jesus further explained that to abide in His love, we must keep His commandments or walk in obedience to His Word. Hence, to experientially abide means keeping the words of Jesus in our hearts and minds, so that they are renewing and reviving us, shaping and sanctifying us, filling and forming us. Thus, to truly abide, we need to be diligently growing in His word so that we may be connected to His word, be dependent on His Word and continually walk in obedience to His Word. This will result in us being constantly connected, remaining and dwelling in His love, making our joy complete.
Abiding, like faith, is a reality and truth for all Christians, but it is also an experience that we grow into, in an increasing degree. No matter where we are on our spiritual journey, we can experience the reality of this connection to Jesus more and more. We can bear fruit (Jn 15:2), more fruit (Jn 15:2) and much fruit (Jn 15:5).
For that reason, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” He not only wants us to have joy, he wants us to have full joy.
We can all grow to abide in God more and more so that we can experience more of His presence, love and joy. When we are connected to him in greater degrees, we grow in our ongoing daily dependence and obedience to him. More love leads to more joy in us which then leads to greater strength in us as the “Joy of the Lord is our Strength” (Neh.8:10).
Hudson Taylor was the founder of China Inland Mission, called by God was responsible in the mid-19th century for leading hundreds of missionaries into China’s interior for the first time. In 1869, when he was 37 years old, he entered a new phase of life. He began to drink more deeply at the experiential fountain of abiding in God’s Love, described in Jn 15:1-11. He was given a deeper, and more constant, more satisfying experience of abiding in Christ.
His son, Fredrick Howard Taylor, wrote in 1932,
Here was a man almost sixty years of age, bearing tremendous burdens, yet absolutely calm and untroubled. Oh, the pile of letters! Any one of which might contain news of death, lack of funds, riots or serious trouble. Yet all were opened, read and answered with the same tranquillity — Christ his reason for peace and his strength for joy. Dwelling in Christ, he drew upon His very being and resources… And this he did by an attitude of faith as simple as it was continuous. Yet he was delightfully free and natural. I can find no words to describe it save the Scriptural expression “in God.” He was in God all the time and God in him. That was true “abiding”.
Like Hudson Taylor, may we all learn to abide more and more in God’s Love so that we can continue to bear fruits, more fruits and even much fruits in the spirit of Love, Peace and Joy!