Podcast Ep 49: The Benefits of Abiding in Christ

Many times in my walk as a believer I have heard and read the term “abide in Christ” and didn’t have a full understanding of what that meant. I know abide means to remain in, and I pictured it as a state of resting in Christ. Studying through John 15 has been a help to me in grasping fully what our Lord meant as he walked and talked with His disciples on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Picture this; our Lord had just left the Upper Room in John 13 & 14 where He and the disciples shared a Passover meal together. During their time together in the Upper Room Jesus washed the disciple’s feet and He dismissed Judas who would betray him (John 13). Now in John 15, they are headed in the darkness of the night to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus’s timing in giving this teaching to his disciples was needed as they were going to face hard times ahead and this lesson is relevant to us today as we meet difficult days. So let’s learn together what it looks like to abide in Christ, be a real disciple and bear fruit for our Lord. I’m working through John 15:1-11 today.

Show Notes:

“It is the Word that prunes the Christian. It is the truth that purges him. The Scripture made living and powerful by the Holy Spirit eventually and effectively cleanses the Christian.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“Abiding involves trusting, obeying, finding all we need in the Vine, not detaching ourselves when things get difficult and becoming more and more in our experience what we already are declared to be in Christ. We’re believing the truths of Scripture and allowing the Holy Spirit to bring about the fruit of those truths in our lives. Christ abides in us when His Word abides in us! The Word — the words that Jesus spoke and all the rest of God’s Word — is essential to our abiding in Christ. We remain and rest in Him because we believe what God has said, and what He has said through His Son, the “Word made flesh.”God’s Word must take root in our hearts if Christ is going to abide in us. The Word must abide in us if it is going to bear the fruit of trust and obedience, and the character of Christ — the fruit of the Spirit — in our lives.” ~ Pam Forster, Doorposts Blog

“To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with Him–to be always leaning on Him, resting on Him, pouring out our hearts to Him, and using Him as our Fountain of life and strength, as our chief Companion and best Friend. To have His words abiding in us, is to keep His sayings and precepts continually before our memories and minds, and to make them the guide of our actions and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior.” ~ J. C. Ryle