Education
Recently I was blessed by a devotional given by a friend of mine to a group of educators. As he shared I was struck with two words he used which seemed to be exactly what I needed to hear in these uncertain times. Abiding and abounding – words probably translated in other versions of the Bible as remaining and overflowing – but I think and maybe it is just me, but abiding and abounding seem to have a greater richness and depth in meaning that the other words do not. In John 15, Christ speaks the powerful words about the relationship between the vine and branches. It begins with, “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener.” And continues, “Abide in me, and I will abide in you, no branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me.” A few verses later it goes on with the same theme, “If you abide in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” Remarkable isn’t it? The promises we have available to us if we “abide” in Christ are limitless. To abide seems to indicate an enormous amount of trust, a confidence in the one in which we are abiding. If we strive to live in community with God, it should be reflected in how we live in community with each other because they can never be separated. Abiding in Christ means that our lives will never be the same and the fruit of that relationship should be very evident. Certainly in these challenging times I want to abide and make sure that as a branch I am very tightly connected to the vine. The security of abiding is what permits me to live in total confidence that God is in control and that He is indeed watching over me. I like that – I need that. But the Scriptures go on in II Corinthians 9 to extend that image to more than just abiding, which sounds almost static, God tells us that those that abide in Him will also abound – flourish. The context of these words are within the story about sowing generously will provide the opportunity to reap generously in the future. Verse 8 begins with: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” The promise is that those who abide in Christ will receive all that we need. It says clearly, “you will abound in every good work.” Those things that we are called to do by God will be blessed - His grace will abound, it will overflow, and we will be given more than we need if we abide in Him first. Note that it does not say that everything will be easy or comfortable but that if you stay connected to Christ and abide in that connection then His grace will abound to you – more than you even need. What a picture – abiding and abounding – because if I miss out on that strong connection with Christ then I will also miss out on the abundance that is made available to me through God’s grace.I need to make sure I keep that tremendous promise in front of me at all times and because of my good friend’s devotional I have just the reminder I need to do so – abiding and abounding. I hope those words might remind you of that same wonderful comfort and source of strength and trigger in your mind the powerful pictures of the vine and the branch and the overflowing blessings that can be ours because we are working faithfully to stay tightly connected to Christ.