abiding.

I haven’t written in months. Something that was once my passion became something I put on the back burner in order to get things done.

After months of misplaced priorities and a season of unnecessary busyness, here I am. I have found myself sitting by a stream at an airbnb in Blue Ridge, Georgia, where I have escaped away for a few days with the hopes of reconnecting with the Lord and rejuvenating my faith.

For some of you, you may be confused as to why I need to “reconnect”.

For the last few months I have been in different ministries– serving full time as the Worship & Family Connections Lead at Grace Church of the Nazarene, serving part-time as the Interim Coordinator of Campus Worship at Bryan College, and even helping out seasonally for Next Level Worship’s ReFOCUS retreat.

So, why on earth would (and could) I be disconnected from my faith?

The answer is simple– I have been pouring from an empty cup.

In other words, I have not been fully abiding in Christ.

I have recently begun reading John Piper’s What Jesus Demands from the World. Within his work, Piper addresses many of the demands given from Jesus found within the New Testament– one being His demand for us to abide in Him.

The following is an excerpt from Piper’s writing:

“Jesus demands that he be the moment-by-moment cause of every good thing in our lives. ‘Apart from me you can do nothing.’ Nothing! Really? Well, we could sin and stop bearing fruit and perish without him. But that’s not what he promises to produce.

He means: “Without me you can do nothing truly good, truly God-honoring and Christ-exalting and self-abasing and eternally helpful for others.” Abiding in Jesus means staying vitally connected, hour by hour, to the one who alone produces in our lives everything he demands.

But practically, what does this mean in our experience? What is this “staying vitally connected”? How do we do this? One important part of the answer is to make clear that abiding in Jesus is not the same as bearing fruit or keeping his commandments. Fruit-bearing and commandment-keeping is the result of abiding. If we abide, we bear fruit.

Jesus does not contradict this when he says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (John 15:10). This does not mean: Keeping his commandments is abiding in his love. That would be like saying: Fruit is being connected to the vine. No. Fruit is the result of our being connected to the vine. They are not the same thing.

What Jesus means is that if you don’t keep the commandments, that is, if you don’t bear the fruit of love (for love is the sum of his commandments, John 15:12), you have ceased to abide in him. For the truth stands: “Whoever abides in me . . . bears much fruit” (John 15:5).

So the answer to our question, “How do we abide in Jesus?” is not “by bearing fruit” or “by keeping the commandments.” That misses the whole point. The point is to discover how to bear fruit. The answer is, by abiding in Jesus.”

For many of us, this is a reminder to stay faithful in abiding with the love of God and His word.

For many of us, this is a moment of conviction.

For me, it was both.

My actions to the Lord began to blur into an incorrect view of service. My brain morphed the idea of ministry into something that must consume almost every hour of the day- as if it was my way of earning God’s grace (quite ironic, if you ask me).

My service was not a result of me abiding in Christ, but rather it was a result of legalistic interpretation.

I began to serve more, but it was not with a joyful spirit. I didn't serve as a result of a calling of Christ but a calling from self to "please" the Lord through my service. It was in my own doing and not of the Lord's.

I will say that the Lord was able to use that time. Though I may be regretful of the stance of my heart and soul, I am not regretful over the way He still used me- through my weakness His love was perfected.

However, just like myself, I think many of us believe that in order to effectively serve Jesus, we must be serving Him at all moments.

And honestly, the idea is not far off from the truth.

However, we have to take a step back and look at how the Lord calls us to serve Him.

Service to Christ is more than just the ministries we serve in. We serve Christ through relationships, rest, and rejuvenation. (I have baptist roots, of course I have three R’s).

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“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another”.

Proverbs 27:12

Christ-Centered Relationships are vital for our faith.

When we get so busy “serving”, we begin to lose our close friendships– the ones we are shown are so important to life itself.

It is imperative that we take time to love those closest to us, and allow them to love back on us. This is Christian love.

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“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creation that he had done.”

Genesis 2: 2-3

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

God rested, and Jesus called us to rest. What more of a reason do we need?

Our body, mind, and soul need rest.

I think this can be one of the hardest things for Christians to accept.

No matter what capacity you may serve, just like myself, I think we all find ourselves with the lack of realization of the need for rest. Or, maybe we do recognize the need, but we tell ourselves that we’re fine.

“I can push through” can be true, but it’s often a lie we tell ourselves in order to move on to the next thing on our to-do list.

We can push through, however, only with the help of Christ. But, this help is often found in the act of rest.

We must stop being so concerned for our own timeline of completion and find ourselves aligned with the timeline of Christ.

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“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8: 31-32

Leaning into the Word of God reminds us of His never changing truth. This should energize us as we go into each day, encouraging us to walk effectively in those said truths.

We will never be able to walk in the ways of Jesus if we are not dedicated to studying what those ways are.

These things don’t become perfect areas of our lives overnight. I am so far from walking in any of them well. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that we will become masters of this overnight.

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I would implore us all to be cautious of excuses and distractions that hold us back from developing or walk and faith in Christ

Take time to assess your life now.

What are the things holding you back from serving Christ well, outside of your ministry contexts. What is keeping you from relationships, rest, and rejuvenation?

For me, it was busyness. It didn’t matter that my busyness may have been found within the walls of a church of a Christian college– distractions can be found in many different aspects of life.

This is why it is important to look to Christ in all moments, allowing Him to guide your next steps. He doesn’t always call us to be involved in serving within every ministry possible.

For some of us, it may be the opposite.

What matters of your personal life of ministry have you allowed to hold you back from serving Christ within a local church or parachurch ministry context?

My desire for my life is to find alignment with David when he wrote:

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.”

Psalm 62:1

Friends, we cannot sit in silence if we are surrounded every moment by the noise of life.

How can you best commit yourself to abiding in Christ?

What do you need to take a step back from in order to serve and worship Him better?

What do you need to take a step into in order to serve and worship Him better?

Songs for reflection, prayer, and singing:

“Abide with Me” - The Worship Initiative

“Still” - Hillsong Worship

“Abide” - Kingdom Culture Worship

“I Delight / Be Still my Soul” - Sean Feucht, Kristen Di Marco

“There is Room” - Kristina Nikol