Abiding in Christ

Week 4 Lenten Devotions

Lent Day 23: Monday March 15

Theme for the Week: The Lord’s Prayer as a Way to Ask for Help

Passage for the Day: John 15:4-7

⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Reflection:

These seem to be really powerful words. “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Anything I ask will be done for me—that seems pretty difficult to believe. Yet, abiding in Christ and letting Christ’s words abide in me are not as easy as they might seem to be on first glance. Abiding is a word we don’t use much in everyday language, and in our fast paced world, abiding is not something we do very easily. The sense of abiding is to remain with something, or someone, to dwell with that person or thing. Abiding takes time, its is not done on a “drive through”. Abiding with Christ, means to take some serious time pondering, meditating and praying about Christ and what role Christ has in my life. And letting Christ’s words, another way of saying the Word of God, abide in me, means that I am spending some real time praying and thinking about who Christ is, what Christ has said and how those words are affecting my life. If I am really dwelling in Christ and letting Christ’s words dwell in me, the things that I ask for will be quite different than they would be without that intimate interaction. Most of the things that I would be likely to ask for without that serious “dwelling” are going to seem not worth asking for, if I am truly abiding in Christ.

Prayer Themes: Thank God for the Christ’s words and Christ’s actions in this world. Pray that I might gain just a glimmer of understanding of what it means to abide with Christ and to let Christ’s words abide in me. Pray that I am able to spend some time dwelling with the Word of God. Pray for others to learn to abide with Christ.